Alam Garcete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Moylan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luan Santos. 2‑0 against Bromley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Joshua Cunningham kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Exeter City can pretend not to have heard.
$1.2M on the table at Southampton. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The deal with Hull City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Exeter City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at West Ham United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newcastle United have kept their man, and Exeter City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Khari Ranson
SquadWords at Exeter City training over how hard people work
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Exeter City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with Newport County; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Exeter City can pretend not to have heard.
$2.4M was the most the club would pay and Leicester City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Everything agreed with Norwich City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Exeter City asked and Derby County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Exeter City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Alam Garcete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anis Ben Slimane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to AFC Wimbledon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Joseph Evans left the room before anybody could ask which.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Oxford United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oxford United and Leicester City have settled on $410.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Everything agreed with Stoke City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oxford United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Tyler Goodrham on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Oxford United and Middlesbrough.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oxford United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aidomo Emakhu and Oxford United agree another 4 years.
Marcos Gómez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Oxford United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brian De Keersmaecker has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Oxford United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.