“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Plymouth Argyle, and it is not being withdrawn.
44 appearances away from home and 17 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad21 May 2029
Alex Mitchell 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.
Davide De Battisti 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Plymouth Argyle, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Plymouth Argyle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jason Bailey after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Plymouth Argyle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Plymouth Argyle offered $10.6M; Brentford said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Plymouth Argyle asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Plymouth Argyle have gone to Bournemouth with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plymouth Argyle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Sal Olivas 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.
Plymouth Argyle asked and Ipswich Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plymouth Argyle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Brighton were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Plymouth Argyle moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Jason Bailey, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
$89.0K on the table at Cardiff City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jack Matthews is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. John Hunter has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.