Marked for Michael Bennett
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia De Sciglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bolton Wanderers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market7 Jul 2031
Robbie Cundy 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 Bolton Wanderers can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bolton Wanderers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
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Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mattia De Sciglio has agreed terms with Sheffield United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Aidomo Emakhu 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Bennett is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Bolton Wanderers asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Frankie Baker has improved at 24, 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Nov 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aidomo Emakhu
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bolton Wanderers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Sam Dalby takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market11 Nov 2030
Only the photograph left for K'Marni Miller
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. K'Marni Miller will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bolton Wanderers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Michael Bennett: 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.” Bolton Wanderers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
One of those days for Sam Dalby
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.61, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Xavier Simons 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.
Match9 Nov 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sam Dalby. 3‑1 against Queens Park Rangers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Nov 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aidomo Emakhu
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bolton Wanderers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Oct 2030
Burnley ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market4 Nov 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Vashchenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bolton Wanderers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Aidomo Emakhu 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.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Gustavo Nunes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sam Dalby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Sep 2030
Aidomo Emakhu damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Match18 Sep 2030
Bromley are out and Bolton Wanderers go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
No sign of nerves from Michael Bennett at 18 — 8.11
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Michael Bennett did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Sep 2030
Ben Heneghan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bolton Wanderers they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Aidomo Emakhu 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 Sep 2030
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Dalby 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 terraces23 Sep 2030
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bolton Wanderers have done the hard part with Leicester City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market15 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bolton Wanderers can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market15 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market15 Jul 2030
Ben Heneghan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bolton Wanderers they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Swansea City have kept their man, and Bolton Wanderers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Michael Bennett is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Stramaccioni 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.