“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.
“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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thomas Cunningham is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdul Fatawu 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Bolton Wanderers for Cundo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Abdul Fatawu 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.
Cundo 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.
The fee is $2.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Birmingham drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artem Karasev has just signed for Leicester City, and for once the answer mattered.
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.