“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Luca Reggiani 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.
3 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 The request is on a desk at Burton Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Casper Roelfsema has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Burton Albion have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Dimitris Naoumis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Zack Stritch 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.
6 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Burton Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Burton Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sigurd Kvile 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Wigan Athletic spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Zack Stritch 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 Mar 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSigurd Kvile knocks on the manager's door
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Cristian Bordoni scored in the 86th minute, AFC Wimbledon had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Burton Albion took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Reggiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian Bordoni. 1‑0 against AFC Wimbledon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Mochammad Supriadi 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“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 Burton Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Burton Albion until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Burton Albion will try again when the window opens; Sunderland may not be selling by then.
$87.0K on the table at Doncaster Rovers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Cristian Bordoni 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.
Burton Albion asked and Chelsea 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Dimitris Naoumis 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Burton Albion had all but put away. Exeter City will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Ngah Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Cristian Bordoni to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Exeter City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
11 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
SquadNathan Zohoré falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Burton Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑2 to Wigan Athletic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
In brief
SquadBurton Albion are still strangers to each other
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Huub Roos 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.
8 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.
Nobody at Burton Albion 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 12 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Anton Frank has just signed for Burton Albion, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Huub Roos 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 11 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion 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 Dimitris Naoumis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The clock did what West Bromwich Albion would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Jonathan Hill 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.
Valentino Onisiwo 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.
Sigurd Kvile and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 May 2035
Eero Lehto 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.
“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.
The dugout28 May 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Jaime Parra's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Burton Albion. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutGeorge Howard asks for a word with the manager
Sigurd Kvile 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.
Squad14 May 2035
Eero Lehto 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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Burton Albion could ask drops and the wages Eero Lehto can ask rise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Timo Becker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Burton Albion. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Burton Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Burton Albion will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Sigurd Kvile 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.
Squad7 May 2035
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eero Lehto 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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burton Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sigurd Kvile 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Zsombor Hős has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Burton Albion have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Hill and Burton Albion agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eero Lehto 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.
Sigurd Kvile 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eero Lehto 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.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Telena Ochieng will call it something else in private.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Shia-Lee Burnham has his answer from Burton Albion; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Nicholas Green, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dalphine Omuri signs something — a contract at Burton Albion or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Eero Lehto 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.
Wigan Athletic next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Everybody at Burton Albion saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Milton Keynes Dons; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burton Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Kai Brosnan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Burton Albion.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eero Lehto 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.
Timo Becker 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burton Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Burton Albion 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 Burton Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kai Brosnan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joshua Butler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Burton Albion know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Wrexham go through and Burton Albion go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Burton Albion will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 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.
Sigurd Kvile and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Kai Brosnan 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.
It needed Dalphine Omuri to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Shrewsbury Town, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 Burton Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Burton Albion asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Kai Brosnan 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.
Stan van Dillen 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.
Burton Albion have made the call to Reading. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Burton Albion lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. James Duque had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Burton Albion have done the hard part with Sunderland, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$1.4M on the table at Tottenham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kyryl Pervanov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shia-Lee Burnham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dylan Morison
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Burton Albion lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything agreed with Brentford, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Kai Brosnan 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.
Luca Woodhouse 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Burton Albion, another week without a signature from Dalphine Omuri.