Marked for Taite Holtam
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Southampton; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad5 Jun 2028
The knee: Ben Buckley out for 34 days
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stockport County lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market5 Jun 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
$410.0K on the table at Northampton Town. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Taite Holtam gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Taite Holtam has just signed for Stockport County, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stockport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: OFK Beograd have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Enzo Faty. The answer from Stockport County has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Stockport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Page 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 2027
Jaden Brown 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 Gillingham can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Omar Beckles 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andy Smith and Gillingham agree another 3 years.
The dugout31 May 2027
Jake Turner asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Taite Holtam
“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
Steady
Match29 Mar 2027
Gillingham are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 76 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Taite Holtam: 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.” Gillingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Omar Beckles in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gillingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Harry McKirdy 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Harry McKirdy asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Barrow AFC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
When it matters, Sam Vokes plays
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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gillingham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Taite Holtam: 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.” Gillingham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Harry McKirdy 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 Nov 2026
Ben Knight 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
10 new faces, and Gillingham 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Eli King knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eli King trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Max Clark gets it from the manager
“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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crawley Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
“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 Nov 2026
When it matters, Sam Vokes plays
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.