Sam Kirwan

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Canterbury United U18
27 Dec 2029
Thursday
Process

Marked for Sam Kirwan

116 Edition

The Canterbury United Gazette

16 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Oliver De Vries is out at Canterbury United

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

The terraces

The mood at Canterbury United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Boardroom

Sam Rufer steps up at Canterbury United for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

Squad

The step up is real for Adama Coulibaly

At 23 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.

Squad

Marco Tuiloma stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Marco Tuiloma and Canterbury United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

5 academy graduates step up at Canterbury United

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

Squad

Bill Lockyer 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.

Market

Canterbury United promote Sam Kirwan from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sam Kirwan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

One of our own: Alex Singh joins the Canterbury United first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alex Singh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief