Marked for Kieran Morrison
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jun 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Svante Ingelsson will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Sheffield Wednesday escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and Sheffield Wednesday go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sheffield Wednesday people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Bournemouth wanted more than $8.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market14 Jun 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer from Exeter City for Bruno Fernandes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Louie Barry 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Luca Russo wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Sheffield Wednesday hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 May 2027
Joel Ndala runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch17 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Charlie McNeill’s exile
27 goals in 39 games at Crewe Alexandra — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad17 May 2027
Filip Kostić 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Louie Barry 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.
Match15 May 2027
0‑1 to Swansea City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 May 2027
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Jarvis Thornton, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Thomas Matthews left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Louie Barry 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Apr 2027
A 0‑3 beating by Derby County was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match17 Apr 2027
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Filip Kostić 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 58 days on the sidelines for Jarvis Thornton, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Looking ahead19 Apr 2027
Charlton Athletic next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Liam Cooper
“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.
Boardroom19 Apr 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Thomas Matthews left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Joel Ndala beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Charlie McNeill’s exile
22 goals in 31 games at Crewe Alexandra — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Match20 Mar 2027
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Kostić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Liam 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The plan did not have a place for Liam Cooper
Nobody at Sheffield Wednesday is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
A career in one shirt: Liam Palmer
17 seasons and 463 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Charlie McNeill’s exile
19 goals in 28 games at Crewe Alexandra — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Louie Barry 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Kostić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Luca Russo 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I want to play”: Filip Kostić speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Thomas Matthews left the room before anybody could ask which.