Marked for Luke Matykiewicz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Þorri Heiðar Bergmann will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IBV the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at IBV, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A falling-out at IBV
Max Jensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Sep 2029
“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.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marcel Zapytowski is on it.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IBV, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Dario Giannini 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 dugout10 Sep 2029
“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.
Looking ahead10 Sep 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against IA in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad8 May 2028
Luke Matykiewicz damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Market8 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Leeds United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The Leeds United board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Boardroom8 May 2028
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 May 2028
Harry Wilson 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 dugout8 May 2028
“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.
Match6 May 2028
1‑2 to Manchester United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
In brief
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Boardroom
Leeds United pay $920.1K to end the manager's contract
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting James Trafford's mistake
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The dugout
A fresh start for Joško Gvardiol under the new man
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leeds United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market1 May 2028
Joško Gvardiol wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leeds United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Leeds United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel James 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
A 2‑1 win over Nottingham Forest, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market1 May 2028
Noah Okafor told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Noah Okafor has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Leeds United.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to August Priske, and the manager let it.
Squad1 May 2028
Joe Rodon slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Joe Rodon is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luke Matykiewicz
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leeds United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Apr 2028
There were 7 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Leeds United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harry Wilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“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.
Match22 Apr 2028
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Joško Gvardiol has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Leeds United 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
Luke Matykiewicz damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“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 Leeds United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harry Wilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Noah Okafor 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Sean Longstaff
“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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Daniel James beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
The afternoon belonged to Alexis Vega
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Daniel James gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Daniel James is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Oct 2027
Luke Matykiewicz damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 Leeds United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Joško Gvardiol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market25 Oct 2027
Noah Okafor told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Noah Okafor has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Leeds United.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Daniel James beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match23 Oct 2027
Manchester City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
the manager answers for it
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Mateo Joseph has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.