Marked for Jonathan Phillips
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Mar 2033
Pressure builds in the Leicester City boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom7 Mar 2033
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 Leicester City can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match1 Mar 2033
0‑3 against Peterborough United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match5 Mar 2033
Jonathan Phillips had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Notts County were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings7 Mar 2033
Age has not caught Bryan Mbeumo yet — 7.99
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 Mar 2033
Conor Chaplin 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.
Player ratings7 Mar 2033
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 7.17, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad7 Mar 2033
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.
The dugout7 Mar 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Barnes, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jan 2033
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniel Watson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings17 Jan 2033
No sign of nerves from Jonathan Phillips at 19 — 7.66
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jonathan Phillips did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Jan 2033
Age has not caught Bryan Mbeumo yet — 7.88
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Jan 2033
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Conor Chaplin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2033
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.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
André Onana 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2033
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.
The terraces17 Jan 2033
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonathan Phillips 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2033
No end in sight to Leicester City's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leicester City has to find a result from somewhere.
Market10 Jan 2033
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Stockport County had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Jan 2033
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.
Market10 Jan 2033
“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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2033
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.80, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2033
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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2033
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Match8 Jan 2033
1‑2 to Plymouth Argyle, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market10 Jan 2033
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2032
10 matches without a win for Leicester City
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Leicester City are no longer polite ones.
Market20 Dec 2032
Matthew Foster has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Everybody at Leicester City saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
The terraces20 Dec 2032
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
Robert Scott 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.
Match18 Dec 2032
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Xander Van Cauwenberg 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
A mark of 7.57, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces29 Nov 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.
Market29 Nov 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.
Match27 Nov 2032
No end in sight to Leicester City's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leicester City has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom29 Nov 2032
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Leicester City is running low.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Conor Chaplin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Friedrich Herrmann and Leicester City agree another 5 years.
The dugout29 Nov 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Watson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings29 Nov 2032
A mark of 7.71, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match27 Nov 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2032
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leicester City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Oct 2032
Matthew Foster has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“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.
Squad25 Oct 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.48 on the card, and the Leicester City support went home talking about one name.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hamza Choudhury trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad25 Oct 2032
King Decca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market25 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luke Thomas’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rúben Rendeiro
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leicester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Oct 2032
Only the photograph left for Daniel Watson
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Watson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings18 Oct 2032
Bryan Mbeumo, 33, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad18 Oct 2032
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Xander Van Cauwenberg is living that version at Leicester City, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces18 Oct 2032
He is 18 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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Leicester City know which stage they are at.
Match16 Oct 2032
It finished 2‑0, and it was Bryan Mbeumo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Leicester City.
Match16 Oct 2032
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and West Bromwich Albion were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Leicester City are still strangers to each other
13 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nothing got past Luke Thomas
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Hamza Choudhury knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Oct 2032
The mood at Leicester City has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 2032
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leicester City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Oct 2032
A one-man rearguard from André Onana
There were 8 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.
Match2 Oct 2032
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Leicester City are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 2032
André Onana reaches 400 appearances
400 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Match2 Oct 2032
Salford City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Oct 2031
Jonathan Phillips damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market6 Oct 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 Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Conor Chaplin 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
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.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leicester City told João Nóbrega something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match4 Oct 2031
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
Iivo Nybäck 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 dugout6 Oct 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Leicester City dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Sep 2031
A one-man rearguard from André Onana
There were 11 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leicester City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market29 Sep 2031
Steven Dixon has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Sep 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Itumeleng Mahlangu and Leicester City agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Thamsanqa Mabunda 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 dugout29 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Benjamin Arthur
“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.
Market29 Sep 2031
“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 dugout29 Sep 2031
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
4.67. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Sep 2031
Jonathan Phillips damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Match17 Sep 2031
A 3‑1 win over Barnet, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match20 Sep 2031
Beaten 0‑4 by Wolverhampton, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Stephen Ward, 18, steals the show — 7.83
Marked 7.83 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.23 for the rest of it.
Squad22 Sep 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 Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
A goal and an assist for Matthew Foster — 7.56
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.56 beside his name.
Squad22 Sep 2031
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.
The terraces22 Sep 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Connor Day 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Phillips
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leicester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Sep 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 Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Sep 2031
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.
Boardroom15 Sep 2031
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Thamsanqa Mabunda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Nóbrega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
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.
Match13 Sep 2031
Blackburn Rovers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“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 Leicester City know it.