98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huddersfield Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huddersfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huddersfield Town, another week without a signature from Connor Ogilvie.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Silko Thomas arrives from Leicester City with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Will Alves
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huddersfield Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus McGuane 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huddersfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
David Kasumu damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Huddersfield Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Will Alves did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rhys Williams has just signed for Huddersfield Town, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus McGuane 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huddersfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Will Alves has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 2‑0 win over Plymouth Argyle, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
David Kasumu damages knee ligaments — 131 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Connor Ogilvie has just signed for Huddersfield Town, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huddersfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven James has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nathan Phillips is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcus McGuane and Huddersfield Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huddersfield Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Cambridge United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antony Evans. The answer from Huddersfield Town has not changed — yet.
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.
Ilias Bronkhorst 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus McGuane 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.
9 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.