Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sunderland they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Blackpool had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Habib Diarra 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.
“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; Sunderland are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Reggie Walsh had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Brentford have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Godwin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Brentford the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 The request is on a desk at Brentford, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Ricardo Pădurariu 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.
Brentford asked and Stevenage said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Brentford have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Brentford can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Brentford is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Wolverhampton 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brentford this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brentford asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadWords at Brentford training over how hard people work
Transfer targetsA loan move for James Garner is in the works
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Brentford have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Brentford they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brentford this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Brentford can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.