Marked for Daeshon Lawrence
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2028
There were 9 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
No end in sight to Rotherham United's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rotherham United has to find a result from somewhere.
Market24 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotherham United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Conor Townsend 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Rotherham United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romelle Donovan 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
Hull City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Ar'jany Martha
7 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 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 Rotherham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Ar'jany Martha 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Conor Townsend knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotherham United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A season on the outside for Rodri
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Rotherham United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market8 Nov 2027
“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.
Market8 Nov 2027
The Kian Spence talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rotherham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2027
1‑5 to West Ham United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Denzel Hall: 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.” Rotherham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Romelle Donovan is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 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 Rotherham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Rotherham United run out of patience with the manager
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Harry Cornick damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Kimarni Smith out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotherham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Luke Bailey recited it perfectly.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matías Vilalta is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Jul 2027
An unwelcome headline for Esapa Osong
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Market5 Jul 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Rotherham United signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kian Best is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market21 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Devlan Moses joins from Sheffield in a deal worth $840.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bolton Wanderers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Daeshon Lawrence has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Eoin Toal 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
Harry Cornick damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kimarni Smith breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jamal Baptiste is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Jun 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 Rotherham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
Bolton Wanderers will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daeshon Lawrence has pre-agreed a move to Rotherham United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.