There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mathías Alessandro is living that version at Cittadella, and it tends to show in the first month.
Francesco D'Alessio 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.
A performance of 9.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Andrik Markgraf was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cheltenham Town will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cheltenham Town and Portsmouth have settled on $1.8M. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cheltenham Town have done the hard part with Tottenham, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ollie O'Neill 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 offer went to Derby County 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutOwen Bevan asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cheltenham Town can pretend not to have heard.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roko Čular has just signed for Cheltenham Town, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Shaun McWilliams'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.
5 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cheltenham Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Cheltenham Town would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cheltenham Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 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.” Cheltenham Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jake Reeves and Cheltenham Town agree another 2 years.
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.
“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 Cheltenham Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kelsey Mooney. 1‑0 against Bristol Rovers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Peter Ward on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jake Reeves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
AFC Wimbledon next, and one man in the Cheltenham Town dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Finley McAllister has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jake Bickerstaff trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chelsea is saying, and nobody at Cheltenham Town is enjoying the guessing.
Cheltenham Town have gone to Middlesbrough with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jake Reeves and Cheltenham Town agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cheltenham Town, another week without a signature from Janoi Donacien.
“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; Cheltenham Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cheltenham Town have done the hard part with Manchester City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Cheltenham Town asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Blackburn Rovers 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ollie Wright trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Myles Roberts signs something — a contract at Cheltenham Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutGeorge Miller has become a man the manager trusts