Marked for Samuel Mitchell
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jul 2031
“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 targets28 Jul 2031
Oldham Athletic have gone to Everton 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 Jul 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Oldham Athletic they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Oldham Athletic have gone to Chelsea 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
$810.0K was the most the club would pay and Burnley 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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Franco Malagueño 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 targets28 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coventry City have kept their man, and Oldham Athletic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jul 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Francesco Recagno and Oldham Athletic agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cambridge United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Oldham Athletic is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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 targets14 Jul 2031
The deal with Chelsea died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
The offer went to Rotherham United 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.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Everything agreed with Sunderland, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Oldham Athletic have gone to Ipswich Town 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oldham Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Kane Drummond
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Jun 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oldham Athletic will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Jun 2031
“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.
Market30 Jun 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Oldham Athletic they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
$830.0K on the table at Hull 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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
The offer went to Port Vale 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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
The offer went to Coventry City 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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Notts County wanted more than $240.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Ryan Woods 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Finley Haselden 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom23 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Oldham Athletic boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Jun 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oldham Athletic will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Jun 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oldham Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
$3.6M was the most the club would pay and Norwich City 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.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The offer went to Bournemouth 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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Franco Malagueño 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 targets23 Jun 2031
$500.00 on the table at Stevenage. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Middlesbrough have kept their man, and Oldham Athletic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Thiago Domínguez 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
Upbeat
Squad16 Jun 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Oldham Athletic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Oldham Athletic people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Oldham Athletic 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.
Market16 Jun 2031
“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 targets16 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Rotherham United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Franco Malagueño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Oldham Athletic offered $440.0K; Bournemouth 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Oldham Athletic have gone to Wrexham 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Pressure builds in the Oldham Athletic boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 Apr 2031
“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 Oldham Athletic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Barker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Kane Drummond
“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.
Match26 Apr 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
George Barker 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 George Barker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Apr 2031
One booking too many, and Thiago Domínguez sits out. Oldham Athletic lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Oldham Athletic can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 Apr 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oldham Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Apr 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thiago Domínguez and Oldham Athletic agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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.
Match5 Apr 2031
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Fleetwood Town were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“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.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.35 on the card, and the Oldham Athletic support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Feb 2031
Jack Steele 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 Oldham Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Conor Coady and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Barker 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.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
109% of the income goes out in wages at Oldham Athletic
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
Marked 7.71 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Oldham Athletic had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
Thiago Domínguez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Feb 2031
A one-man rearguard from George Hardy
There were 10 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.
Market17 Feb 2031
“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.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Conor Coady 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 Oldham Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Barker 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.
Match15 Feb 2031
0‑2 to Newport County, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jan 2031
Kane Drummond damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
The clubs have shaken hands with Sheffield United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad13 Jan 2031
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market13 Jan 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oldham Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
The paperwork begins on Harry Lewis
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Oldham Athletic have done the hard part with Stevenage, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Thiago Domínguez 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 targets13 Jan 2031
Oldham Athletic asked and Crewe Alexandra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match11 Jan 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thiago Domínguez. 2‑0 against Cambridge United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Oct 2030
The knee: Kane Drummond out for 131 days
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oldham Athletic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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 Oldham Athletic, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Oldham Athletic may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Franco Malagueño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Oct 2030
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Oldham Athletic can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“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.
Looking ahead14 Oct 2030
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Courtney Baker-Richardson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Oldham Athletic needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market14 Oct 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Oldham Athletic, another week without a signature from Lukas Graf.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Apr 2030
No end in sight to Oldham Athletic's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Oldham Athletic has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Conor Coady 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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.
Match20 Apr 2030
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad22 Apr 2030
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Aaron Nemane 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.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Mark Barnes to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Apr 2030
A 0‑3 beating by AFC Wimbledon was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Conor Coady and Oldham Athletic agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Conor Coady 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 Oldham Athletic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Thiago Domínguez 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.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Oscar Varney
“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.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
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 0‑3 Mark Barnes left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad8 Apr 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Franco Malagueño
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Franco Malagueño has come out of that comparison in the side, and Oldham Athletic have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Apr 2030
Only the photograph left for Devon Brockie
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Devon Brockie will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Oldham Athletic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Oldham Athletic
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Franco Malagueño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 Apr 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“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.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
Kane Drummond asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Oldham Athletic would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Up for the corner, and Franco Malagueño delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Franco Malagueño scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Franco Malagueño 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 dugout25 Mar 2030
Alfie Hughes 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.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Mark Barnes to a room that had heard them before.
Squad25 Mar 2030
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.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Samuel Mitchell dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Devon Brockie 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 Oldham Athletic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Mar 2030
Alfie Hughes 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 Oldham Athletic can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A one-man rearguard from Oscar Varney
There were 7 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Domínguez 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.
Match16 Mar 2030
A 1‑0 win over Cambridge United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mark Barnes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Oldham Athletic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.