Marked for Robert Williams
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
Jimmy Sinclair damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Derby County pay $34.0M, 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Fulham come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nottingham Forest did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nicolás Domínguez was one of the reasons people came, and $34.0M does not replace that by itself.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Chris Wood in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gustavo Sá commits to Nottingham Forest for another 5 years.
Loan watch12 Jun 2028
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manchester City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market12 Jun 2028
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Alex Tóth arrives from Bournemouth with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Chris Wood 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Nottingham Forest will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Nottingham Forest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sangaré 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Esapa Osong and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom29 May 2028
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Squad29 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Quaresma
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Quaresma will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nottingham Forest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market29 May 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
Squad29 May 2028
The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Ola Aina, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 May 2028
Chris Wood in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 May 2028
66 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad22 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 May 2028
Chris Wood 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 May 2028
Neco Williams 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Ibrahim Sangaré 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.