Marked for Jonathan Murphy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jun 2045
Charles Shaw: 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.” Middlesbrough have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Jun 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middlesbrough this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2045
Cristian Aloisio 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.
Squad19 Jun 2045
Too much change too quickly at Middlesbrough
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market19 Jun 2045
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jun 2045
Jonathan Murphy gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan Murphy has just signed for Middlesbrough, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Jun 2045
Nicolás Zuleta 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.
Squad12 Jun 2045
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simon Harris commits to Middlesbrough for another 4 years.
Squad12 Jun 2045
Cristian Aloisio 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.
Market12 Jun 2045
Charles Hamilton is 18, and Middlesbrough have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market12 Jun 2045
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arnaud Picard has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Middlesbrough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Feb 2044
Yefim Kolobov damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market29 Feb 2044
“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.
Squad29 Feb 2044
Ilja Yurin 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
Crisis
Squad1 Feb 2044
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yefim Kolobov
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo St Petersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Feb 2044
“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.
Market1 Feb 2044
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Feb 2044
Ilja Yurin 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2044
Levan Mikautadze 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2044
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2044
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yefim Kolobov
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo St Petersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Jan 2044
“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.
Market18 Jan 2044
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2044
Ilja Yurin 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2044
Levan Mikautadze 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.
Market18 Jan 2044
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Viktor Jansson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 2043
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2043
Ilja Yurin 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2043
Levan Mikautadze 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.
Squad21 Dec 2043
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Murphy
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2043
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market21 Dec 2043
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Viktor Jansson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.