Marked for Freddie Simmonds
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Brighton lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Brighton may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market27 Sep 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Luka Vušković
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Pascal Struijk 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Everton, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Brighton
Ibrahim Osman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Freddie Simmonds and Brighton agree another 4 years.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
$5.5M on the table at Hull 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Jesse Debrah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AFC Wimbledon they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and AFC Wimbledon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Norwich City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Freddie Simmonds is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Amin Nabizada 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mariano Martín gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mariano Martín has just signed for AFC Wimbledon, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Nathan Bishop
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Apr 2027
George Edmundson 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Freddie Simmonds is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at AFC Wimbledon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Bishop 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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abu Kamara 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
A 1‑0 win over Northampton Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isaac Ogundere, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
The afternoon belonged to Abu Kamara
A mark of 7.88, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
George Edmundson 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 targets18 Jan 2027
$180.0K was the most the club would pay and Newport County 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
AFC Wimbledon asked and Chesterfield said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Jan 2027
1‑2 to Stockport County, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abu Kamara 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 dugout18 Jan 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Abu Kamara at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AFC Wimbledon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Amin Nabizada at 19 — 7.79
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amin Nabizada did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Freddie Simmonds is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 36 days on the sidelines for Jesse Debrah, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Finley McAllister 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at AFC Wimbledon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Bishop 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 Idris Odutayo, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Anthony James to a room that had heard them before.
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
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
George Edmundson 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Doncaster Rovers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Delano McCoy-Splatt and AFC Wimbledon agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anthony James after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market19 Oct 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
Market19 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A move Maicol Fernández would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Maicol Fernández is living that version at AFC Wimbledon, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Antwoine Hackford is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
George Edmundson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Market12 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 AFC Wimbledon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ethan Sutcliffe is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kabelo Mahlasela and AFC Wimbledon agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Anthony James could afford to be generous.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Freddie Simmonds, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 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 AFC Wimbledon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and AFC Wimbledon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rotherham United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Amin Nabizada 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 Aug 2026
AFC Wimbledon are still strangers to each other
10 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anthony James after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
FC Copenhagen 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting George Edmundson's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.