Marked for Sam Johnstone
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hwang Hee-Chan
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wolverhampton lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Kieran Trippier 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Joshua Zirkzee 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Leeds United left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
100 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 1‑3 David Morgan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Everton in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wolverhampton lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Kieran Trippier and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Wolverhampton 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Manchester City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Hugo Bueno runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market23 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Wolverhampton know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Leeds United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Adam Armstrong is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Nov 2026
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bloemfontein Celtic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Nov 2026
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match14 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Free State Stars, and it could have been more.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kasper Høgh is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.71 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.22 at 19, 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match14 Nov 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Bloemfontein Celtic have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kasper Høgh 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 Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mbongeni Gumede
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bloemfontein Celtic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Camilo Durán is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.64 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oliver Sørensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kasper Høgh. 3‑1 against Kaizer Chiefs, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Sam Johnstone, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.79 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mbongeni Gumede
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bloemfontein Celtic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Camilo Durán takes the afternoon — 9.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Camilo Durán provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 3, 22 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Camilo Durán is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.50 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
A 0‑3 beating by Mamelodi Sundowns was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Mamelodi Sundowns this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Orlando Pirates wanted more than $1.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Sam Johnstone, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kutlwano Letlhaku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.