The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcel Clément will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Amund Wichne 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 Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Denis Skrypnikov is a Baltika 2 player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marcel Clément is living that version at Baltika 2, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amund Wichne 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.
10 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 offer from Racing Club for George Hall was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The fee is $610.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bristol Rovers drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Port Vale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Christopher Hawkins is living that version at Port Vale, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben Garrity 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The phone has started ringing about Marcel Clément again, and this time the name on the line is Shrewsbury Town. Port Vale are listening politely and promising nothing.