Dante Plunkett 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 Luka Bentt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Blackpool, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Blackpool told Antonis Stergiakis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Akin Odimayo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Blackpool needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Blackpool 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Blackpool will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Emir Karalić has agreed terms with Wycombe Wanderers for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Dante Plunkett 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.
“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 Blackpool know it.
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
5 new faces, and Blackpool 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bromley next, and one man in the Blackpool dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Blackpool have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Bentt 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.
Blackpool ran out of time with Everton. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Alexis Fernández 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 dugout17 Sep 2029
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Liam Brown to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Luka Bentt 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.
Alexis Fernández 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Blackpool has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Blackpool have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Blackpool asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Luka Bentt 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.
“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.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Luka Bentt's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Blackpool have made the call to Stade de Reims. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Blackpool have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Wolverhampton 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.
Blackpool offered $30.0K; Leyton Orient 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Blackpool have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Morato wants continental football; whether Blackpool can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Dante Plunkett 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.
“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 Blackpool know it.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Crole 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brandon Hanlan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Kevin Rivas has written the date down.
“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 Blackpool hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dante Plunkett and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 May 2029
Luka Bentt 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 dugout7 May 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Cian Ashford's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andréas Hountondji is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Blackpool than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Dante Plunkett 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.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Bentt 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Liam Brown could afford to be generous.
Morato 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.
Chesterfield will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Adam Lewis has pre-agreed a move to Blackpool, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Swindon Town made Blackpool work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Cian Ashford 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Liam Brown could afford to be generous.
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pietro Traversa 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.
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 Vitor is on it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 20 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Blackpool people have started saying his name in the past tense.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brighton have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dante Plunkett 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Liam Brown on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Andréas Hountondji has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Newport County in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Vitor is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for James Crole
Dante Plunkett 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.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
25 games in 199 appearances where nobody scored at all. A keeper's career is counted in nothing happening, and none of this happened by accident.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Crole 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Liam Brown could afford to be generous.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Blackpool will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Crole was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Blackpool 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 William Lykke has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Crole trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gregor Horn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Burton Albion next, and one man in the Blackpool dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Vitor is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Blackpool the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
0‑0 against Colchester United, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A brace, and Cian Ashford takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cian Ashford provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Bentt has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cheltenham Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Blackpool is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Aug 2028
Josh Bowler wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Josh Bowler found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Accrington Stanley went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Blackpool have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $90.0K — a club that wants John Egan enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Burnley 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.
Queens Park Rangers wanted more than $2.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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.
Blackpool asked and Nottingham Forest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Jed Ward again, and this time the name on the line is Shrewsbury Town. Blackpool are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Blackpool are dealing with a man who wants a different country.