Marked for Rhys Chadwick
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2027
Bromley say no — this time
The offer from Chornomorets for Michael Cheek 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Kaide Gordon in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bromley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
0‑1 to Milton Keynes Dons, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carl Jenkinson, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 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 Charles Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Kaide Gordon beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, 18, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Bromley would like this to lead.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nathan Paul-Lavaly is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Kaide Gordon beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Michael Cheek again, and this time the name on the line is Koper. Bromley are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Bromley's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bromley has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jonathan Haftom is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Bromley
Robert Cook and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Bromley
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bromley can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vicenza have kept their man, and Bromley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Jelani Trevisan is in the works
Bromley have made the call to Benfica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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Squad
Robert Cook wants out of the dugout
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Robert Cook
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Bromley
4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Carlos Richards 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Rhys Chadwick 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Michael Cheek
13 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Crawley Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Liam Bailey 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Byron Webster 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Charles Reid after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Dec 2026
1‑4 to Notts County, 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryan Kavuma-McQueen did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Kaide Gordon in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bromley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ben Thompson, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Bromley dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Charles Reid after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Robert Cook 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
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
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Rhys Chadwick at 19 — 7.71
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rhys Chadwick did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match5 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Bromley right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Haftom and Bromley agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Bromley
Kaide Gordon 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Michael Cheek is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.31 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match5 Dec 2026
Tranmere Rovers made Bromley work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 20 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Kaide Gordon beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Bromley
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The dugout
The form table has caught Robert Cook
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Lakyle Samuel, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Kaide Gordon 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
500 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kaide Gordon. 2‑0 against Accrington Stanley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Samual Archer gets it from the manager
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Player ratings
The afternoon ran through Michael Cheek
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 10.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad9 Nov 2026
7 saves: Sam Long was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Lakyle Samuel, 20, steals the show — 7.61
Marked 7.61 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Bromley
Kaide Gordon 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 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bromley and Barnet, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michael Cheek. 4‑2 against Barnet, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Bromley
A 1‑5 beating by Colchester United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
9 saves: Sam Long was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Michael Cheek, 35, rolls back the years — 7.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samual Archer is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Bromley
Kaide Gordon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bromley and Colchester United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Bromley
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rhys Chadwick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rhys Chadwick, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Bromley dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Kaide Gordon runs at them all day
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The dugout
The form table has caught Brooklyn Ilunga
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Michael Cheek yet — 8.74
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.74 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.70 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Robert Cook
At 19 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Bromley
Kaide Gordon 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
The drought breaks for Bromley
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Crewe Alexandra were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match10 Oct 2026
Crewe Alexandra made Bromley work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Bromley
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bromley are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reece Evans 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Bromley
Harry Forster and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Charles Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Henry Brown commits to Bromley for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 22 in, 17 out at Bromley
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kaide Gordon 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Norwich City wanted more than $170.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Milton Keynes Dons, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhys Chadwick 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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 0‑2 Charles Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Harry Forster in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bromley are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I want to play”: Kaide Gordon 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Bromley
A 1‑4 beating by Salford City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Michael Cheek, 35, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Reading 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.
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 Bromley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Bromley
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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Chelsea have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bromley are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christopher White commits to Bromley for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Bromley say no — this time
The offer from Cardiff City for Michael Cheek 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Barrow AFC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torino have kept their man, and Bromley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Bromley
Freddie Cowin 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 Charles Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rhys Chadwick 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 targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Liverpool: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Samual Archer is in the works
Bromley have made the call to Tottenham. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Bromley turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Bromley say no — this time
The offer from Valletta for Corey Whitely 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Emmanuel Deh 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bromley have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benjamin Taylor has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christopher White is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Bromley
Rhys Chadwick and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Brighton: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Torino: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Njabulo Hlongwane commits to Bromley for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Bobby Hassell 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 Bromley can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Deh and Bromley agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Bromley
Emmanuel Deh 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bobby Hassell 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rhys Chadwick is in the works
Bromley have made the call to Leeds United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.