Robert Atkinson

Right Midfielder - Everton U20
22 Feb 2032
Sunday
Process

Marked for Robert Atkinson

263 Edition

The Everton Sentinel

11 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Michael Marshall breaks a bone — 31 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Robert Atkinson damages knee ligaments — 16 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.

Market

Gaizka Larrazabal 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 Everton can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Everton walk away from Illan Meslier

$6.1M was the most the club would pay and Manchester 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Everton

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at Everton

Day 41 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.

Squad

Words at Everton training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Zirkzee 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Tommy Setford

Everton asked and Manchester United 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 dugout

Borja Sainz 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.

In brief

Back issues
262 Edition

The Everton Sentinel

4 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

38 days out for Michael Marshall after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Everton will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Robert Atkinson damages knee ligaments — 23 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.

The dugout

Borja Sainz keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Everton may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Ivo Chaves puts it in writing

“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 Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Borja Sainz 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 Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

No deal for Luigi Esposito at that price

Everton offered $570.0K; Tranmere Rovers 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.

Squad

Tyrone Omotoye is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Boardroom

Everton beat the market to Yulian Iliev from Oxford United

Oxford United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Yulian Iliev has pre-agreed a move to Everton, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Beau Reus

Everton asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief