Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Bromwich Albion they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fulham will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alex Borto has pre-agreed a move to West Bromwich Albion, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Jid Okeke 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at West Bromwich Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brayann Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every West Bromwich Albion game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Barnsley runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Bromwich Albion know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Tegan Finn is on it.
In brief
The dugoutLuke Pearce knocks on the manager's door
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Bromwich Albion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
5 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.
West Bromwich Albion have gone to Sheffield United 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.
Everything agreed with Luton Town, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$730.0K was the most the club would pay and Aston Villa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Position 24 and 39 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.
“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 West Bromwich Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Bromwich Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Bromwich Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isaac Price signs something — a contract at West Bromwich Albion or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at West Bromwich 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Bromwich Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Bromwich Albion has to find a result from somewhere.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Bromwich Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Nathan Collins 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 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Aune Heggebø scored in the 88th minute, Sheffield United had already begun thinking about the journey home, and West Bromwich Albion took the lot.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Aune Heggebø takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aune Heggebø provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Mepham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Bromwich Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Wycombe Wanderers to sit and watch. I want to come back to West Bromwich Albion and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.