Marked for Tomás Mena
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market1 Oct 2029
“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.
Market1 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hassan Mohamed Yusuf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shrewsbury Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Sep 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Shrewsbury Town did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Lorenzo Bordo 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Cruz Santander was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Marked 7.54. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Richard Henderson has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The terraces6 Aug 2029
Anger at Shrewsbury Town spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market6 Aug 2029
Tristan Crama 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 Shrewsbury Town can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Isaac Godwin out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shrewsbury Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shrewsbury Town have done the hard part with Cheltenham Town, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
An offer of $140.0K for Reiss Bowen
Shrewsbury Town 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
James Bolton in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shrewsbury Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
No deal for Reiss Bowen at that price
Shrewsbury Town offered $140.0K; Wolverhampton 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“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 Shrewsbury Town know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Jul 2029
Ryan Loft puts it in writing
“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 Shrewsbury Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Jul 2029
The deal that would have taken Stanley Straw to Portsmouth has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Shrewsbury Town with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
An offer of $370.0K for Feyi Afuape
Shrewsbury Town have gone to Barnsley 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Shrewsbury Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorik Emini 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Bordo, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Cameron Antwi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Shrewsbury Town are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market9 Jul 2029
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Shrewsbury Town money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jul 2028
7 matches without a win for Platense
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Platense are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 dugout17 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomás Mena has agreed terms with Sarmiento for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market17 Jul 2028
The chase for Ivo Kestler ended with $510.0K changing hands and Tigre out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Pedrinho 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.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Argentinos Juniors will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Facundo Barboza has pre-agreed a move to Platense, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Platense asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“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.