Marked for Christian Wright
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jan 2032
Marcel Hartel 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Jake Girdwood-Reich 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Wright and St. Louis CITY SC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
“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.
Market19 Jan 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jeong Sang-Bin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad19 Jan 2032
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at St. Louis CITY SC would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
58 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jan 2032
Anger at St. Louis CITY SC spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Marcel Hartel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matthew Mparaganda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Sepúlveda, and the manager let it.
Market12 Jan 2032
He is 17, and nobody at St. Louis CITY SC signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad12 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Wright and St. Louis CITY SC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jan 2032
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market12 Jan 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fallou Fall’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
Dylan Teves knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Louis CITY SC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
The offer went to CF Montreal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Morgan Guilavogui 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.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
New York City wanted more than $370.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and Real Salt Lake go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emeka Eneli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“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.
Market21 Jul 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Morgan Guilavogui’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead21 Jul 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against St. Louis CITY SC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.