Marked for Joseph Williams
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 2027
Ruari Paton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Port Vale they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 May 2027
Erik Sviatchenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 May 2027
Andre Gray 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
George Hall knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Hall trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Moreira 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 dugout24 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Port Vale. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
Ruari Paton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Port Vale they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Port Vale
George Byers 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Williams 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andre Gray, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
George Hall knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Hall trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Martin Sherif, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Port Vale would like this to lead.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Wigan Athletic next, and one man in the Port Vale dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market29 Mar 2027
The Rui Costa talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Port Vale know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
George Byers 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 Port Vale can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Port Vale
5 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Port Vale have done the hard part with Hull City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Rui Costa 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 targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sunderland have kept their man, and Port Vale go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Appearance number 200 for Liam Gordon
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Port Vale
George Byers 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Kyle John told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kyle John has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Port Vale.