Marked for Daniel Grant
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Age has not caught Sven Botman yet — 8.41
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad24 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2037
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2037
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Zakaria Ait Ali has agreed terms with Nottingham Forest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at Newcastle United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Ramsey 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.
Market24 Aug 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newcastle United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Andrew Johnson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match22 Aug 2037
Brighton left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Aug 2037
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Newcastle United is running low.
Market3 Aug 2037
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Bruno Guimarães 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.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Jacob Ramsey 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.
Market3 Aug 2037
The Sven Botman story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sven Botman signs something — a contract at Newcastle United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom3 Aug 2037
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Jul 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Jul 2037
Daniel Grant 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 Newcastle United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Words at Newcastle United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harvey Barnes 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
Uneasy
Squad20 Jul 2037
Bruno Guimarães 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.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Jacob Ramsey 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.
Squad20 Jul 2037
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Newcastle United know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jun 2037
Bruno Guimarães 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.
Market22 Jun 2037
Daniel Grant 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 Newcastle United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Jacob Ramsey 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 May 2037
Thijs Dallinga: 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.” Newcastle United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 May 2037
Bruno Guimarães 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.
Market25 May 2037
Daniel Grant 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 Newcastle United can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom27 Apr 2037
“This is a club with real history, and I did not have to think about it for long.” The new manager takes charge with every slate wiped clean.
Market27 Apr 2037
“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.
Squad27 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom30 Mar 2037
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Newcastle United is running low.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match28 Mar 2037
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. William Osula was at the centre of it, Crystal Palace were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
Michael Bell could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.71
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.71, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
William Osula, 33, rolls back the years — 9.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market30 Mar 2037
“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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Jacob Ramsey 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.
Match28 Mar 2037
A 4‑3 win over Crystal Palace, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Newcastle United
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings2 Mar 2037
Age has not caught Jacob Ramsey yet — 9.17
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad2 Mar 2037
356 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Newcastle United know what they have.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Bruno Guimarães 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.
Market2 Mar 2037
“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 Newcastle United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Words at Newcastle United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Botman 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
The manager makes an example of Lewis Hall
“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.
Match28 Feb 2037
1‑3 to West Ham United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces2 Mar 2037
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jan 2037
6 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.
Market26 Jan 2037
“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 Newcastle United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Jan 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newcastle United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom26 Jan 2037
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Qara Ismayilov 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.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Jacob Ramsey 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.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Lewis Hall gets it from the manager
“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.
Match24 Jan 2037
Liverpool left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Jan 2037
6 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.