The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Rui Costa 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lucas Dilelio scored in the 89th minute, Northampton Town had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Port Vale took the lot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Port Vale have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ryan Giles 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.
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 8.15 — 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Cunningham is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Port Vale deserved better, and so did he.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Pavel Chikida has improved at 34, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julio Da Silva 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.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Nicolás Gallardo scored in the 88th minute, Accrington Stanley had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Port Vale took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Port Vale they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Mar 2029
At 20, Dahiss Mendy is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Port Vale have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Ryan Giles 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
George Byers 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolás Gallardo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.