It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Murillo wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gabri Veiga 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.
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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Dan Ndoye was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Richard Cunningham chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Barrow AFC the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Rotherham United will enjoy reviewing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ar'jany Martha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rotherham United asked and Hull City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotherham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cheltenham Town will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rotherham United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotherham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Rotherham United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Rotherham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yunus Emre Konak is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Huddersfield Town wanted more than $380.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Paul Mullin 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Rotherham United and Crawley Town, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dan Ndoye has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
The name of Yves Bissouma has come up in conversations Nottingham Forest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousmane Diomande 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nottingham Forest, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutMurillo asks for a word with the manager
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rotherham United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotherham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rotherham United have done the hard part with Nottingham Forest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ruairi McConville 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Rotherham United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Max Sanders 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Exeter City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Ante Crnac 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Liam Gibbs 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aaron Bott, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 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 1‑2 Richard Wright left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout10 May 2027
Aaron Bott is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Position 23 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Richard Wright has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Exeter City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Exeter City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
2‑3 to Northampton Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 May 2027
Ante Crnac 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Something was said to Callum Hudson-Odoi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Salford City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dan Ndoye is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Exeter City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Crnac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Dan Ndoye 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ousmane Diomande was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nottingham Forest 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Richard Cunningham, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Xaver Schlager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Exeter City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Exeter City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Marked 6.67 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Lorenzo Lucca 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 Ibrahim Sangaré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lorenzo Lucca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nottingham Forest.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Lorenzo Lucca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Something was said to Leny Yoro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Exeter City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ethan Brierley 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Frankie Phillips is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lautaro Taboada. 1‑0 against Bradford City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Liam Reid on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Harry McHugh
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Exeter City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lautaro Taboada 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Crnac 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ben Lloyd has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Exeter City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Exeter City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Coventry City, 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. Manchester United have kept their man, and Exeter City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Liam Gibbs 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.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Exeter City know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Exeter City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
André Vidigal 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Crnac 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Johnly Yfeko, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Paul Kelly to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Ante Crnac 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Vidigal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Exeter City has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Ethan Brierley, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
André Vidigal 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Crnac 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jake Doyle-Hayes and Exeter City agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paul Kelly after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 Paul Kelly left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
In brief
The dugoutJohn Clarke dropped after a run of poor form
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Brierley 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Exeter City know it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 Paul Kelly left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Gibbs was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Exeter City, another week without a signature from André Vidigal.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 Paul Kelly left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ante Crnac 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ed Turns commits to Exeter City for another 3 years.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Brierley 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.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Exeter City told Aaron Bott something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paul Kelly after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lautaro Taboada 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Liam Gibbs 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.
At 22 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
André Vidigal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Danny Andrew
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Sutherland is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Lautaro Taboada 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 Ante Crnac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ante Crnac 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Josh Magennis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Exeter City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Vidigal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Bradford City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Norwich City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A loan enquiry to Nottingham Forest: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ed Turns 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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Xaver Schlager and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Domínguez wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.