Marked for Daniel Young
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Aidan Evans 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Fulham
Something was said to Ryan Sessegnon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Emile Smith Rowe keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Fulham say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crystal Palace in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Samuel Chukwueze has written the date down.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Adam Phillips knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adam Phillips trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Luke Harris’s exile
3 goals in 38 games at Wycombe Wanderers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fulham updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Fulham will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Fulham's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fulham has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Seth Ridgeon is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 Fulham players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” James Murray chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Tom Cairney
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
36 starts now, an average of 6.79, and the team sheet at Derby County has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
Market22 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fulham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match20 Mar 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bournemouth defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Fulham
Oscar Bobb 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fulham know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tottenham in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Tom Cairney has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tom Cairney has written the date down.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Tottenham
Position 10 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
7 starts now, an average of 6.64, and the team sheet at Derby County has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The training reports on Daniel Young are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager plants his flag on Jorge Cuenca
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jorge Cuenca’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Tottenham come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Fulham did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Fulham asked and Wrexham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Alex Iwobi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fulham.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Emile Smith Rowe at his very best
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Fulham.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Fulham
Oscar Bobb and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
One of those days for Alex Iwobi
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Sunderland: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Derby County: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.