Marked for Benjamin Jackson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2043
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Squad3 Aug 2043
“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.
Match3 Aug 2043
Manchester City refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market3 Aug 2043
The bid was some way short and Manchester City did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2043
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2043
“The easiest signature of my career.” Endrick and Manchester City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Jul 2043
The words a physio says slowly. 162 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 Jul 2043
431 appearances across 17 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.
Match6 Jul 2043
Position 3 and 68 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad6 Jul 2043
“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.
Market6 Jul 2043
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad6 Jul 2043
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nico O'Reilly and Manchester City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market6 Jul 2043
“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 Manchester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Jul 2043
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Manchester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jun 2043
Nico González: 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.” Manchester City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Jun 2043
Álex Jiménez 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.
Market15 Jun 2043
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market15 Jun 2043
Andrew Shaw has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Manchester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jun 2043
Words at Manchester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Baleba 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.