Marked for Benjamin Hunter
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Augustus Kargbo out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Blackburn Rovers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Blackburn Rovers is running low.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackburn Rovers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Nathan Dlamini is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ryan Alebiosu 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 dugout31 Jul 2028
Hayden Carter 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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Something was said to Kieran Green and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Sep 2027
A 2‑0 win over Crawley Town, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A debut Benjamin Hunter will not forget — 7.23
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.23 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
No sign of nerves from Gady Beyuku at 21 — 8.40
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gady Beyuku did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market20 Sep 2027
Jake Batty hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackburn Rovers can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Dion De Neve: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Blackburn Rovers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Kieran Green delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kieran Green scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Jake Batty is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
A one-man rearguard from Balázs Tóth
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Oladapo Afolayan: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Blackburn Rovers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
The deal with Norwich City 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The step up is real for Jake Batty
At 22 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Balázs Tóth 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 Aug 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Blackburn Rovers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.