Marked for George King
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Dec 2030
25 days out for Dennys Quintero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crystal Palace will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Dec 2030
George King 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 Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Quinten Timber 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.
Match7 Dec 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Crystal Palace did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Wharton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ben Chilwell commits to Crystal Palace for another 2 years.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“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.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Nov 2030
A fracture rules Dennys Quintero out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crystal Palace will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Nov 2030
George King 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 Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Nov 2030
Only the photograph left for Sam Waller
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sam Waller will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Crystal Palace the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Cheick Doucouré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quinten Timber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Nov 2030
A 2‑1 win over Leeds United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Walid Cheddira
“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.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
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Player ratings
A masterclass from Adam Wharton
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The dugout
Walid Cheddira dropped after a run of poor form
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Oct 2030
A fracture rules Daichi Kamada out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crystal Palace will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Oct 2030
George King 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 Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Crystal Palace is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match12 Oct 2030
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Crystal Palace are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Wharton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Ben Chilwell 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.
Match12 Oct 2030
3 matches without a goal for Crystal Palace
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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Crystal Palace can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Sep 2030
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Crystal Palace lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Sep 2030
63 days out for Daichi Kamada after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crystal Palace will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
Sam Bell: 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.” Crystal Palace have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Sep 2030
George King 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 Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Crystal Palace is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Quinten Timber and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Sep 2030
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Adam Wharton 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.
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Sep 2030
Walid Cheddira damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market2 Sep 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sam Waller had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Crystal Palace until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market2 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cheick Doucouré commits to Crystal Palace for another 3 years.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
Crystal Palace had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Young Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Wharton 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
The step up is real for George King
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Walid Cheddira
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crystal Palace lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cambridge United have kept their man, and Crystal Palace go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market5 Aug 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Crewe Alexandra had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Manchester United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market5 Aug 2030
The bid was some way short and Crystal Palace did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tottenham keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Quinten Timber 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Wharton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Aug 2030
The step up is real for George King
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Crystal Palace may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Jul 2030
The offer from Arsenal for Takehiro Tomiyasu 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.
Market1 Jul 2030
George King 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 Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Jul 2030
Only the photograph left for Alex Borto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Borto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Crystal Palace the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Adam Wharton 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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Crystal Palace asked and Nottingham Forest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market1 Jul 2030
Add another name to the list: San Luis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maximiliano Rueda. The answer from Crystal Palace has not changed — yet.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Crystal Palace can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Crystal Palace may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quinten Timber 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Takehiro Tomiyasu 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” George King commits to Crystal Palace for another 4 years.
Loan watch19 Nov 2029
“I did not go to Cardiff City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Crystal Palace and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Eddie Nketiah 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 Crystal Palace, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Callum Wilson dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Half-satisfied: Robert Price on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.