Alberto Lunghi 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.
“I watch every Colchester United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Port Vale runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harry Mills was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Colchester United will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Frankie Terry signs something — a contract at Colchester United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colchester United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colchester United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $400.0K for Rio Hammond, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Colchester United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 19, and nobody at Colchester United signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. JK Gordon 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colchester United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colchester United can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colchester United have done the hard part with Aston Villa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jack Tucker 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.
Colchester United offered $44.0K; West Bromwich Albion 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and Colchester United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and JK Gordon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Colchester United have made the call to Stoke City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Aston Villa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Matías Soulé 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Goretzka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Aston Villa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stockport County runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aston Villa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Twente had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aston Villa can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. AC Milan moved on, Mile Svilar reports back to Aston Villa, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aston Villa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 19 gone
That is the business done at Aston Villa 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.
“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 Aston Villa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mile Svilar 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.
In brief
SquadRio Hammond is a better footballer than he was
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aston Villa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John McGinn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Victor Lindelöf is on it.