Marked for Jerome Osei
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Nov 2030
Leonidas Konomis damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Market4 Nov 2030
Tarik Bagola 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 Dinamo Tbilisi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kryspin Szcześniak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Tengo Gobeshia 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 Nov 2030
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
Wages eat 95% of everything Dinamo Tbilisi earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
When it matters, Allex plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
Kukri has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kukri has written the date down.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Oct 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Dinamo Tbilisi now.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kryspin Szcześniak 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Tengo Gobeshia 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 dugout21 Oct 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
Yarlei 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
The formation has left Jerome Osei behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Tbilisi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Tbilisi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Oct 2030
A season on the outside for Lázaro
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
The knee: Jerome Osei out for 18 days
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Jul 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stoke City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bosun Lawal wants continental football; whether Stoke City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Stoke City
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sorba Thomas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch16 Jul 2029
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stoke City, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sam Mather, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Brian Madjo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Stoke City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jul 2029
The knee: Jerome Osei out for 25 days
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oldham Athletic waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market9 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Tchamadeu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market9 Jul 2029
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Jul 2029
The paperwork is done: Elyh Harrison joins from Luton Town in a deal worth $1.9M. Now comes the harder part.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sorba Thomas 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
9 new faces, and Stoke City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I want to play”: Nathan Lowe 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.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
When it matters, Milan Smit plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.