Marked for Daniel Cunningham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Queens Park Rangers is running low.
Market28 Feb 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ilias Chair 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 Queens Park Rangers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Rumarn Burrell 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.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Nicolas Madsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Match26 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Osman Kamara
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Daniel Cunningham
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jan 2028
Dennis Cirkin 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 Queens Park Rangers can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Justin Obikwu 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Ilias Chair 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolas Madsen. 2‑0 against Derby County, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Marked 8.04 — 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, James Harvey could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
James Harvey signs on for the long haul
Queens Park Rangers moved before anybody else could: a new deal for James Harvey, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Match21 Aug 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Marvin Kaleta 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ilias Chair 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 Queens Park Rangers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ronnie Edwards 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.