Marked for Rian Silver
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jun 2030
Position 19 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Milton Keynes Dons may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Jun 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Milton Keynes Dons is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Jun 2030
As if he never left: Rian Silver returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Rian Silver is a Milton Keynes Dons player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad10 Jun 2030
A club back home comes in for Rian Silver
The enquiry everybody at Milton Keynes Dons was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jan 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Jan 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Jan 2030
Only the photograph left for Mamadou Sakho
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mamadou Sakho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Clermont Foot the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market14 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Andy Pelmard 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 Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed Guindo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Marked 8.67 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“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 Clermont Foot know it.
Match12 Jan 2030
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Clermont Foot may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market27 Aug 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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Aug 2029
Tours are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Clermont Foot will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market27 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Clermont Foot have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad27 Aug 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.
Match25 Aug 2029
Stade Lavallois left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jun 2029
Mehdi Znifakh has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Clermont Foot they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Mohammed Guindo 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.
Market25 Jun 2029
AC Ajaccio are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Clermont Foot will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Famara Diédhiou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Jun 2029
The name of Théo Guivarch keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Clermont Foot say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Feb 2029
A one-man rearguard from Diego Mariño
There were 8 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
Ezequiel 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 Albacete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A season average of 7.48 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Marked 9.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jorge Juliá, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Toni Moya runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Feb 2029
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Sep 2028
There were 9 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of William Avognan
“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 ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 8.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad11 Sep 2028
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 5.52, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 5.75, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 39, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A defender's afternoon for Will Collar
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
One of those days for Ben Wiles
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market28 Aug 2028
The phone has started ringing about Rian Silver again, and this time the name on the line is Preston. Milton Keynes Dons are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Devonte Ferguson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2028
24 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Milton Keynes Dons has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Aug 2028
0‑6 to Blackburn Rovers, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad14 Aug 2028
There were 9 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Nobody could get near Ben Wiles
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Milton Keynes Dons, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Alex Gilbey
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Gilbey will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Milton Keynes Dons the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Milton Keynes Dons may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad31 Jul 2028
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.