Ramiro Martino 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Wolfert is living that version at Universitario Popayan, and it tends to show in the first month.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Universitario Popayan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Norwich City can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Norwich City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Sven Botman 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.
Norwich City asked and Oxford United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefanos Tzimas 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Norwich City can pretend not to have heard.
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.
40 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The deal that would have taken Lucas Wolfert to Preston has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Norwich City with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Sven Botman 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.
Jack Stacey 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Norwich City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutRento Takaoka asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Salford City waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Norwich City is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Norwich City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The phone has started ringing about Matěj Jurásek again, and this time the name on the line is Notts County. Norwich City are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from Stevenage for Lucas Wolfert 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Norwich City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Norwich City have gone to Cambridge United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Swindon Town have kept their man, and Norwich City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.3M — a club that wants Jamal Jimoh-Aloba enough to be asked twice.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Sven Botman 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 offer from Slavia Prague for Jovon Makama 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Norwich City can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Stefanos Tzimas wants continental football; whether Norwich City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Norwich City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Nottingham Forest 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Sven Botman 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.
Add another name to the list: Bromley have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Wolfert. The answer from Norwich City has not changed — yet.
“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 Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Derby County 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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Norwich City have gone and got theirs early.
Tommy Setford 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Sven Botman 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Norwich City know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Norwich City have gone to Aston Villa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ollie Oldfield has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Sven Botman 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.
Add another name to the list: Milton Keynes Dons have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Wolfert. The answer from Norwich City has not changed — yet.
The offer from Sheffield Wednesday for Ephron Mason-Clark 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.
“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 Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Norwich City asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Middlesbrough 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.
Norwich City have made the call to Brighton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Norwich City, another week without a signature from Tobi Adeyemo.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Norwich City has been clear about where Elliot Myles stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutBen Chrisene asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Norwich City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Norwich City know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sheffield United were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A 1‑0 win over Sheffield United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Jovon Makama was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sven Botman signs something — a contract at Norwich City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Norwich City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Sven Botman 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Norwich City know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Norwich City asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Cardiff City tried to reorganise, Norwich City did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jovon Makama at his very best
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Norwich City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Norwich City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ephron Mason-Clark has his answer from Norwich City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Half the programme played, position 16, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Botman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Norwich City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Norwich City, and 7 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jovon Makama signs something — a contract at Norwich City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Norwich 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Paris Maghoma’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Norwich City needing him to play as if none of it matters.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Norwich City would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
In brief
The dugoutAshton Muir asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Norwich City can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Norwich City has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Norwich City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Botman 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Norwich City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
West Bromwich Albion held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Norwich City answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Norwich City are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
DJ Esdaille is 20, and Norwich City have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Norwich City have gone to Wolverhampton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Norwich City have done the hard part with Brentford, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Norwich City asked and Barnsley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Norwich City know it.
“I watch every Norwich City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wigan Athletic runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Sven Botman is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Sven Botman is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Norwich City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Norwich City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Norwich City offered $810.0K; Blackburn Rovers 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.
The name of Jacob Wright has come up in conversations Norwich City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Vladan Kovačević keeps the shirt for now, at Norwich City's convenience rather than his own.