Marked for Benjamín González
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamín González
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fulham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fulham have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Sander Berge for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fulham will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market18 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fulham is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Fulham
Mathys Tel 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Fulham
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Iwobi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonah Kusi-Asare, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Mathys Tel knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fulham, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jun 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamín González
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fulham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Mathys Tel: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fulham have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Jun 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.
Market11 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets11 Jun 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.
Market11 Jun 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Fulham
Mathys Tel 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Alex Iwobi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2029
Benjamín González damages knee ligaments — 102 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fulham heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Alex Iwobi 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 Fulham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for Ian Lawlor
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ian Lawlor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fulham the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Diego Sánchez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diego Sánchez has just signed for Fulham, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Fulham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joachim Andersen 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Alex Iwobi 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 Alex Iwobi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamín González
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fulham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 May 2029
George Long has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fulham they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Fulham
Mathys Tel 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.
Squad28 May 2029
A row about effort at Fulham
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Iwobi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 May 2029
When it matters, Luke Harris 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.
Market28 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Joachim Andersen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Jan 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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Como keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match13 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Fulham's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fulham has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Fulham
Bernd Leno 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Fulham cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Alex Iwobi 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
Jorge Cuenca 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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Fulham asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.