Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
15 goals in 32 games at Bristol Rovers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Stoke City updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewi Richards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 The request is on a desk at Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kaye Furo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 appearances at Twente and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haris Ismailcebioglu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lorenzo Palmisani 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Lewi Richards 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stoke City are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Stoke City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Lorenzo Palmisani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Kaye Furo 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.
15 goals in 29 games at Bristol Rovers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Stoke City updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Stoke City can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
“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 Stoke City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Timeo Whisker wants continental football; whether Stoke City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kaye Furo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gady Beyuku 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stoke City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Paul Reverson: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kaye Furo 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.
16 combined actions and 7.12. 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gady Beyuku 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Stoke City know now that the thought has arrived.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stoke City heard it as anything else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oleksandr Kamenskyi has just signed for Stoke City, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Stoke City had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
Tayo Subuloye is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Stoke City will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Axel Holewiński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gady Beyuku 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.
Something was said to Tayo Subuloye and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSeedy Jatta knocks on the manager's door
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Paul Reverson: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kaye Furo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Gady Beyuku 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.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaye Furo provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stoke City heard it as anything else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Stoke City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Stoke City training over how hard people work
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Kaye Furo 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Kaye Furo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gady Beyuku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Kaye Furo 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tayo Subuloye 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stoke City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stoke City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stoke City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
Huddersfield Town will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Samuele Perrone has pre-agreed a move to Stoke City, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal that would have taken Modou Faal to Milton Keynes Dons has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Stoke City with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Madiodio Dia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Stoke City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Stoke City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Young Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stoke City heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewi Richards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stoke City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Stoke City offered $5.4M; Manchester City 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.
The deal with Liverpool is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Stoke City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Port Vale have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Modou Faal. The answer from Stoke City has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadWords at Stoke City training over how hard people work
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Manchester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Newcastle United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Abdukodir Khusanov 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.
10 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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 Bradley Barcola is on it.
7 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.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Timeo Whisker is somebody else's player now, and $866.7K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
500 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christ Tapé 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Francesco Folino has his answer from Stoke City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Seedy Jatta will call it something else in private.
12 shut-outs in 32 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Joseph Cowan has been having a lot of them.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stoke City, another week without a signature from Tayo Subuloye.
In brief
The dugoutSeedy Jatta dropped after a run of poor form
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Stoke City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Lorenzo Palmisani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 May 2035
Lewi Richards 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.
12 shut-outs in 32 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Axel Holewiński has been having a lot of them.
14 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Newcastle United were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Loan watch23 Apr 2035
Paul Reverson’s loan is measured in nothing happening
28 clean sheets from 42 appearances at Watford. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Sepp van den Berg 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Christ Tapé 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Kaye Furo 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Lewi Richards 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Iwan Morgan has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stoke City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Loan watch16 Apr 2035
Joseph Cowan’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Bradford City. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
27 shut-outs in 40 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Paul Reverson has been having a lot of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christ Tapé 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.
32 appearances at Wisła Płock and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
12 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.
Sepp van den Berg 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Lewi Richards 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christ Tapé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stoke City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
26 shut-outs in 38 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Paul Reverson has been having a lot of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joey de Ruijter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Stoke City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Aston Villa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Mpho Padime 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
23 shut-outs in 35 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Paul Reverson has been having a lot of them.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stoke City can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Currie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Refat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 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.
32 appearances at Watford and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Sepp van den Berg 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.
17 shut-outs in 28 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Paul Reverson has been having a lot of them.
A conversation is coming this week. Stoke City will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Lewi Richards 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Marezi is a Stoke City player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The fee is $3.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Chelsea drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
$4.5M was the most the club would pay and Liverpool 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kaye Furo 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.
27 appearances at Watford and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
SquadLewi Richards falls out with a teammate over standards
Everything agreed with West Ham United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Stoke City and Stockport County have settled on $920.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City 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 Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Jorge Cabezas Hurtado enough to be asked twice.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lewi Richards had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Refat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer went to Charlton Athletic this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Leicester City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stoke City 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Stoke City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Kaye Furo 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.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
“I watch every Stoke City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fulham runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
12 shut-outs in 22 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Paul Reverson has been having a lot of them.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
Sepp van den Berg 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 Lewi Richards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Nilson Angulo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stoke City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timeo Whisker. 2‑1 against Manchester United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stoke City are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
18 appearances at Watford and the goals have stopped going in. Stoke City lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stoke City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.41 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Stoke City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Lewi Richards 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stoke City can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Lewi Richards 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.
“I watch every Stoke City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fulham runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Stoke City had all but put away. Brighton will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
In brief
The dugoutFrancesco Folino is still being punished for one mistake
7 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.
Sepp van den Berg 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Jack Currie 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francesco Folino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kaye Furo 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewi Richards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Lorenzo Palmisani 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewi Richards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stoke City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stoke City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewi Richards 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stoke City can tell you which week it ends in.
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stoke City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stoke City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Stoke City, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stoke City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.