Marked for Daniel Watson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Sep 2032
Supporters organise against the Leicester City board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Leicester City have done the hard part with Brentford, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market6 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leicester City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market6 Sep 2032
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 30 gone
That is the business done at Leicester City until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
Still no name above the door at Leicester City
Day 21 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Fathy Elneny 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 Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Sep 2032
The manager makes an example of Daniel Watson
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2032
Giacomo Fedel 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 Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leicester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Leicester City asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market30 Aug 2032
The bid was some way short and Leicester City did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Everything agreed with Oxford United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad30 Aug 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Aug 2032
2‑4 to Luton Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke Thomas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2032
“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 Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
Josh Hawkes: 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.” Leicester City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Aug 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
The deal with Port Vale is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad16 Aug 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Nóbrega 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Door shut on Allan
Leicester City 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
25 shut-outs in 338 appearances. A keeper’s career is counted in games where nothing happened, and none of it happened by accident.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces9 Aug 2032
Supporters organise against the Leicester City board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market9 Aug 2032
“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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
$2.3M settles it between the clubs for John Cooper
Chelsea have accepted the money. What Leicester City do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market9 Aug 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leicester City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market9 Aug 2032
The bid was some way short and Leicester City did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
Everything agreed with Manchester City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Luke Thomas 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.
Market9 Aug 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Leicester City have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad9 Aug 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leicester City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Market2 Aug 2032
Giacomo Fedel 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 Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
Leicester City and Leeds United have settled on $3.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market2 Aug 2032
André Onana wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leicester City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Aug 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leicester City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luke Thomas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jul 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leicester City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
The deal with Brentford is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market26 Jul 2032
Mihnea Toader 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 Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jul 2032
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for André Onana, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Burnley keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Conor Chaplin 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Nóbrega 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dillon Addai commits to Leicester City for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jul 2032
“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 Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leicester City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Leicester City asked and Gillingham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market19 Jul 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Everything agreed with Brighton, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Everybody at Leicester City saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Luke Thomas 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
$20.0K was the most the club would pay and Birmingham 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.
Market19 Jul 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Leicester City have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2032
“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.
Market28 Jun 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leicester City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Leicester City have gone to Norwich City 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.
Market28 Jun 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Leicester City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Burnley, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Luke Thomas 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Connor Day 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Reading have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Jun 2032
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market21 Jun 2032
Business is business: Steven Dixon goes
Coventry City paid $800.0K and Leicester City took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke Thomas 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market21 Jun 2032
The name of Daniel Watson has come up in conversations Leicester City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
A loan move for Josh Thomas is in the works
Leicester City have made the call to Sheffield United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
Leicester City have made the call to Burnley. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market21 Jun 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matthew Foster signs something — a contract at Leicester City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market21 Jun 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. João Nóbrega may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jan 2032
A 1‑4 beating by Ipswich Town was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market12 Jan 2032
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
The clubs have shaken hands with Sunderland; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market12 Jan 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leicester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad12 Jan 2032
A one-man rearguard from André Onana
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
The deal with Sunderland is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chelsea is saying, and nobody at Leicester City is enjoying the guessing.
Squad12 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
The offer went to West Bromwich Albion 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.