Marked for Michael Golding
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market27 Sep 2027
Josh Flint 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 AFC Wimbledon can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Marked 7.63 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Ricardo Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match25 Sep 2027
Whatever happens, AFC Wimbledon do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harry Tyrer, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Something was said to Lewis Koumas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Golding was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Nathan Bishop: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match15 Sep 2027
Barnsley are out and AFC Wimbledon go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AFC Wimbledon may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Sep 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
No sign of nerves from Jack Moorhouse at 21 — 7.96
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jack Moorhouse did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AFC Wimbledon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A move Reza Heidari would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Reza Heidari is living that version at AFC Wimbledon, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
He is 22 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 2‑0 win over Oldham Athletic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 AFC Wimbledon, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AFC Wimbledon may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at AFC Wimbledon 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
AFC Wimbledon asked and Brentford 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Isaak Davies
“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.
Squad6 Sep 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 AFC Wimbledon know it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Andy Yiadom 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Golding was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Sep 2027
AFC Wimbledon are still strangers to each other
8 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 2027
Josh Flint 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 AFC Wimbledon can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Braiden Graham at 19 — 8.30
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Braiden Graham did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kamarni Ryan commits to AFC Wimbledon for another 5 years.
Match28 Aug 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Marcus Browne’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AFC Wimbledon.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Johnson, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AFC Wimbledon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ford Parker 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at AFC Wimbledon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Golding 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Supporters organise against the AFC Wimbledon board
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.
Market16 Aug 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
Andy Yiadom: 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.” AFC Wimbledon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Aug 2027
Floriana come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AFC Wimbledon did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Josh Flint 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AFC Wimbledon can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets16 Aug 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Hernán Luna
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Aug 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Leicester City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Joe McDonnell
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joe McDonnell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AFC Wimbledon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Ricardo Pereira 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
AFC Wimbledon asked and Burnley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Bauer commits to AFC Wimbledon for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Golding was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AFC Wimbledon, another week without a signature from Will Wright.
Looking ahead9 Aug 2027
Newport County top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The offer went to Newcastle 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leicester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$590.0K on the table at Crystal Palace. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market9 Aug 2027
AFC Wimbledon pay $1.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chelsea have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Brentford 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
John Lundstram is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leicester City has been clear about where John Lundstram stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Aug 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The AFC Wimbledon board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad2 Aug 2027
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Ricardo Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Will Wright, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and AFC Wimbledon know which stage they are at.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Harry Cornick 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
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$8.1M settles it between the clubs for Hector Kyprianou
Watford have accepted the money. What Leicester City do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match18 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Portsmouth spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Leicester City asked and Union SG said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Ben Nelson has left for Aston Villa in a $5.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Pineto for Jeremy Monga was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Nathan Opoku again, and this time the name on the line is Blackpool. Leicester City are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ephron Mason-Clark 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.