Deji Elerewe damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lincoln City can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Brighton this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $425.5K — a club that wants Harrison Dudziak enough to be asked twice.
Lincoln City asked and Rotherham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Egan-Riley was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile and Lincoln City agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lincoln City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Newcastle United wanted more than $18.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Reeco Hackett has gone, the accounts have $2.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lincoln City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer went to Manchester United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Queens Park Rangers paid $2.0M and Lincoln City took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer went to Walsall this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Lincoln City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Birmingham, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$3.7M was the most the club would pay and Manchester City 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.
Lincoln City have gone to Wolverhampton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$170.0K on the table at Swansea City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Lincoln City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Egan-Riley 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.
John Egan 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lincoln City will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Lincoln City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bristol City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Lincoln City have gone to Manchester City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lincoln City can pretend not to have heard.
$340.0K on the table at Blackpool. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Clay Atkins has, at Lincoln City, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everton will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. John Edwards has pre-agreed a move to Lincoln City, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
Josh Honohan 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Oyegoke will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lincoln City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Khiani Shombe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryley Towler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
The offer from Leicester City for Tom Hamer 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.
Dom Jefferies has gone, the accounts have $1.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Lincoln City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Tottenham drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lincoln City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
Lincoln City spend $1.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.1M for Roman Egan-Riley, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Lincoln City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Hamer 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.
Lincoln City asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$11.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lincoln City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Lincoln City has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
He is going to Mainz 05, the club has $11.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The phone has started ringing about Tom Hamer again, and this time the name on the line is Leicester City. Lincoln City are listening politely and promising nothing.
$1.7M on the table at Burton Albion. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.8M — a club that wants Roman Egan-Riley enough to be asked twice.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lincoln City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Lincoln City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Melbourne Victory for Finn Inglethorpe 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lincoln City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lincoln City have gone to Tottenham with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Khiani Shombe 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.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Swindon Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swindon Town can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Joshua Ajala, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Leo Shahar 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.