Marked for Will Lankshear
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Darmstadt 98 pay $25.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: David Ozoh joins from Derby County in a deal worth $9.7M. Now comes the harder part.
Market24 Aug 2026
Hannibal has left for Liverpool in a $10.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market24 Aug 2026
Burnley say no — this time
The offer from Derby County for Armando Broja was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $25.4M sale of Jordan Beyer
He is going to Darmstadt 98, the club has $25.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Will Lankshear gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Will Lankshear has just signed for Burnley, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burnley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marcus Edwards falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasaf have kept their man, and Burnley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$51.4M on the table at Zenit. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 Aug 2026
The chase for Riku Yamane ended with $12.5M changing hands and Yokohama F. Marinos out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market24 Aug 2026
Millwall come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Middlesbrough did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
Burnley paid $14.8M and Middlesbrough took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Will Lankshear has gone, the accounts have $14.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Middlesbrough asked and Newcastle United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Millwall, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Jeremy Sarmiento was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Middlesbrough; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$11.2M on the table at Derby County. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Reading had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.0M — a club that wants Oscar Fraulo enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Grégoire Coudert 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Josh Cullen for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Burnley will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Burnley
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.