Marked for David Oppong
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
Fee done, terms next for Finlay Corke
Plymouth Argyle and West Ham United have settled on $6.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market20 Aug 2035
The bid was some way short and Plymouth Argyle did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market20 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AFC Wimbledon waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Plymouth Argyle is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
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.
Match18 Aug 2035
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
The offer went to Southampton 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.
The dugout20 Aug 2035
David Oppong: 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.” Plymouth Argyle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
Everything was agreed with Salford City and then the doctor spoke. Plymouth Argyle have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market20 Aug 2035
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2035
73 days out for Raymond Adjei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Plymouth Argyle will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad4 Jun 2035
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Plymouth Argyle lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Jun 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Plymouth Argyle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Everything agreed with Blackburn Rovers, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Plymouth Argyle go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Samukelo Ngodela and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Freddie Ingram 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 targets4 Jun 2035
Sheffield United 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.
Market4 Jun 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Plymouth Argyle, another week without a signature from Samukelo Ngodela.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Andile Billiat
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andile Billiat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Blackburn Rovers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Michael Cooper 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kosta Nedeljković 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simen Bolkan Nordli and Blackburn Rovers agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Blackburn Rovers are still strangers to each other
12 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
The manager makes an example of David Oppong
“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.
Market20 Nov 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackburn Rovers, another week without a signature from Nathan Thomas.
Market20 Nov 2034
Simen Bolkan Nordli arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market20 Nov 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Blackburn Rovers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Oct 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kosta Nedeljković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Blackburn Rovers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market16 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Ilyes Ziani 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Blackburn Rovers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lahlou Akhrib 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Blackburn Rovers are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market16 Oct 2034
David Oppong is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Blackburn Rovers has been clear about where David Oppong stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Duarte Carvalho, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
Boyd Beacroft is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.