Marked for Blake Wolsoncroft
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2032
Theo Corbeanu breaks a bone — 69 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings10 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Market10 May 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wolverhampton can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolverhampton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2032
14 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad10 May 2032
Bremer 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.
Player ratings10 May 2032
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout10 May 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordan Pickford trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom10 May 2032
93% of the income goes out in wages at Wolverhampton
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Feb 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Wolverhampton people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad9 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolverhampton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Bremer 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.
Market9 Feb 2032
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Wolverhampton can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
The manager makes an example of Senne Lammens
“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.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Wolverhampton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces9 Feb 2032
At 23 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.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Marked 8.62 — 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.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Ninety minutes of William Osula at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Wolverhampton.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jul 2031
Ljupce Doriev 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 Wolverhampton can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jul 2031
Jayden Lienou has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wolverhampton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Wolverhampton 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Jordan Pickford and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Bremer 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Ramzy El Khiari 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Blake Wolsoncroft has just signed for Wolverhampton, and for once the answer mattered.
Market21 Jul 2031
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Blake Wolsoncroft has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jul 2030
A Stockport County player is an international champion, and the town will claim a share of a summer it had nothing to do with. 36 caps now, and a name that will be said differently for the rest of his career.
Market15 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stockport County have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market15 Jul 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.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stockport County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Jul 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Sontje Hansen 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denys Sliusar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A muscle injury sidelines Gbenga Opamoye for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Stockport County will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
Joe Neild 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jun 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Bailey Cadamarteri
30 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match24 Jun 2030
The season ends: position 10 for Stockport County
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 68 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market24 Jun 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.
Market24 Jun 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings24 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Jun 2030
León Astrada is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad24 Jun 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 Stockport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
No deal for Sam Hart at that price
Stockport County offered $74.0K; Burton Albion said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Match22 Jun 2030
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.