Marked for Sam Taylor
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Tranmere Rovers offered $1.5M; Watford said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Lamine Cissé in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tranmere Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Taylor is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jeriel Dorsett 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 targets21 Jun 2027
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.
Market21 Jun 2027
He is 17, and nobody at Tranmere Rovers signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Coventry City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Tranmere Rovers are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tranmere Rovers can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Diego Valdez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tranmere Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Taylor is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aden Baldwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Tranmere Rovers asked and Chesterfield said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Charlie Whitaker has come up in conversations Tranmere Rovers were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aden Baldwin, and the manager let it.
Match29 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
6 saves: Luke McGee was the team
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Sam Taylor: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tranmere Rovers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lamine Cissé 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. João Resende had Tranmere Rovers level again within 1 minutes, and Notts County never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Pedro Cauã
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lamine Cissé in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tranmere Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Taylor is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeriel Dorsett was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Shrewsbury Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kristian Dennis commits to Tranmere Rovers for another 1 years.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 96% of the Tranmere Rovers income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lee O'Connor, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Tranmere Rovers now.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Tranmere Rovers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jack Whatmough 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Aden Baldwin gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexander Clark has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tranmere Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George McCormick 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Tranmere Rovers are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.