Marked for Sergio Ortiz
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for James Maxwell
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bromley lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Feb 2029
James Maxwell has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bromley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Marc Roberts: 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.” Bromley have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. James Maxwell has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Bromley
Bruno Baldini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match17 Feb 2029
Barnet made Bromley work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match13 Feb 2029
0‑1 to Blackpool, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Sergio Ortiz
“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
Steady
Squad22 Jan 2029
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bromley lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Jan 2029
There were 9 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.
Market22 Jan 2029
Stoke City come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bromley did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market22 Jan 2029
Mickel Miller 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 Bromley can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Joel Kerr, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Bromley
James Maxwell 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 targets22 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Blackburn Rovers have kept their man, and Bromley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces22 Jan 2029
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bromley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bromley can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Bromley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Makavore 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.
Match9 Dec 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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Paul Makavore
“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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” David Young was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Bromley dressing room was either.
Market11 Dec 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Cameron Ashia 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 Cameron Ashia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Nov 2028
“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 Bromley, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Eddie Fox, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match25 Nov 2028
At last: Bromley win one
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Tranmere Rovers. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A move Paul Makavore would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paul Makavore is living that version at Bromley, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Bromley
James Maxwell 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.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Carlos Richards has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match25 Nov 2028
A 2‑0 win over Tranmere Rovers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Sergio Ortiz
“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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Bromley
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marley Wilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Squad
Louis Poland signs on for more
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Player ratings
Mickel Miller beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Bromley
James Maxwell and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Sergio Ortiz 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 Bromley, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Freddie Taylor, and the manager let it.
Market20 Nov 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Maxwell signs something — a contract at Bromley or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes Dawid Konopka a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bromley. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Marley Wilson is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
Bromley keep producing them
17 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Next up on the road: Tranmere Rovers, position 18. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Bromley and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Bromley
5 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
James Maxwell 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mitch Pinnock and Bromley agree another 2 years.
Match7 Oct 2028
Colchester United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Sergio Ortiz
“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.
Market9 Oct 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 David Young left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Bromley are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.