Marked for Jack Dallimore
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match30 Aug 2028
Blau-Weiß Linz ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Austria Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 29 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Daniele Bolcano arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Daniele Bolcano has, at Austria Salzburg, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Erkin Yalcin 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Aigner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Oct 2027
5 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Jack Dallimore: 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.” Austria Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Vesel Demaku 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Murillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Oct 2027
Erkin Yalcin scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Amstetten, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Meisl, and the manager let it.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“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 Austria Salzburg know it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 Thomas Lienhart to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $68.2K — a club that wants Carl Piergianni enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The deal with Liverpool is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
No deal for Jack Stevens at that price
Bolton Wanderers offered $460.0K; Reading 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The offer went to Stevenage 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 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
5 new faces, and Bolton Wanderers 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bolton Wanderers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad21 Jun 2027
This league is too small for Dan Neil
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Bolton Wanderers will not keep him by pretending otherwise.