Marked for Sam Curtis
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$3.7M was the most the club would pay and Brentford 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Kyle Hurst hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Doncaster Rovers can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.1M — a club that wants Michael Olakigbe enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Brentford, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Darren Robinson 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
George Tanner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The offer went to Brentford this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market14 Jun 2027
Tom Nixon hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Doncaster Rovers can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Doncaster Rovers asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Sam Curtis joins from Sheffield United in a deal worth $730.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market14 Jun 2027
The chase for James Crole ended with $600.0K changing hands and Newport County out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Luke Molyneux 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Doncaster Rovers are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad14 Jun 2027
George Tanner has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Doncaster Rovers know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Doncaster Rovers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The offer went to Sheffield United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with West Ham United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Luke Molyneux and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Jun 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Bristol City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luciano Pereyra has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
The knee: Matt Doherty out for 46 days
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sheffield United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The offer went to Chelsea this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market18 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done: Benjamin White joins from Arsenal in a deal worth $13.8M. Now comes the harder part.
Match18 Jan 2027
Position 3 and 53 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: RC Lens have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michael Cooper. The answer from Sheffield United has not changed — yet.
Match16 Jan 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market18 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Sheffield United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sam Curtis has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.