Teddie Lamb, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Paul Glatzel 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacob Mitchell and Swindon Town agree another 4 years.
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
Teddie Lamb, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jacob Mitchell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Swindon Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andre Changunda is living that version at Swindon Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Paul Glatzel 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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 Swindon Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Paul Glatzel 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.
Kien Connolly 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Swindon Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swindon Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
27 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Swindon Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Paul Glatzel 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.
Marked 8.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Kien Connolly 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dan Chimeziri and Swindon Town agree another 3 years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swindon Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Glatzel 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Paul Glatzel 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swindon Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Oldham Athletic? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Gillingham go through and Swindon Town 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Swindon Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pietro Rota Bulò is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filozofe Mabete 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.
Fletcher Holman 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.
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Swindon Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swindon Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jai-Dea Moulton is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Words at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Glatzel 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Swindon Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Swindon Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swindon Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadWords at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Swindon Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Swindon Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jai-Dea Moulton is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadWords at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Swindon Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Swindon Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is going to Wycombe Wanderers, the club has $1.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Wycombe Wanderers pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at Swindon Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Glatzel 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.
Fletcher Holman 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.