Marked for Eduardo Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Liam Miller has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Crawley Town can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Jun 2028
Luca Zabatta 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 Crawley Town can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Crawley Town have done the hard part with Southampton, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Taylor Richards and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barnsley have kept their man, and Crawley Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“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; Crawley Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
A loan move for Sean Steur is in the works
Crawley Town have made the call to Newcastle United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
Taylor Richards 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Birger Odegaard
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 May 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
Taylor Richards 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ramell Carter is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kellan Gordon, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2028
Akin Odimayo 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 Crawley Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
Omar Sowunmi breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Mar 2028
“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 Crawley Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Taylor Richards 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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Ramón Villalba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Crawley Town has been clear about where Ramón Villalba stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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; Crawley Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Ramón Villalba 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 Crawley Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Birger Odegaard
“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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Crawley Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
52 days out for Omar Sowunmi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crawley Town will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Feb 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Taylor Richards 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davíð Örn Atlason, and the manager let it.
Match26 Feb 2028
0‑1 to Rotherham United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Something was said to Davíð Örn Atlason and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
4.33 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Taylor Richards and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tudor Mendel-Idowu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Oviedo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Crawley Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Crawley Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louie Watson 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
It needed Tudor Mendel-Idowu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Exeter City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Ramón Villalba 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 Crawley Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Liam Miller was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Crawley Town dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Luca Zabatta out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crawley Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match25 Sep 2027
Barrow AFC will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Crawley Town were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match21 Sep 2027
Taylor Richards had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Cheltenham Town were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad27 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 Crawley Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Taylor Richards 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 terraces27 Sep 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Omar Sowunmi, and the manager let it.
Match25 Sep 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Barrow AFC tried to reorganise, Crawley Town did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad31 May 2027
Tudor Mendel-Idowu 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
Taylor Richards 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 dugout31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Crawley Town are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout31 May 2027
Akin Odimayo 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 Akin Odimayo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market31 May 2027
Crawley Town shop where it costs nothing
Eduardo Ramírez signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
The dugout31 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kellan Gordon has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Pachuca, 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Puebla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Puebla's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Puebla has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Puebla can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match22 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Puebla
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Raul Castillo has come up in conversations Puebla were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Matías Sánchez
“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.