Patrick Simons

Left Back - Odd
26 Jan 2048
Sunday
Process

Marked for Patrick Simons

1114 Edition

The Odd Post

2 Dec 2047
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Raul Jimenez has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Odd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom

The Odd board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Daley Frimpong is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Odd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Marco Vogt: 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.” Odd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Bjorn Ajer has been here 10 seasons

68 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.

Squad

Jonathan Dixon stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Dixon and Odd agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

Odd agree a free transfer for Ilan Bosch

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Squad

Odd count the cost of losing Bjorn Singh

68 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Market

Odd and Patrick Simons are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

In brief