Marked for Shayne Lavery
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Louis Appéré out for 104 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cambridge United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A move Jenson Jones would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jenson Jones is living that version at Cambridge United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Cambridge United's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cambridge United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shayne Lavery 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dominic Ball gets it from the manager
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Grimsby Town leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Louis Appéré out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cambridge United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑3 against Oldham Athletic, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Supporters turn on the $440.0K sale of Glenn McConnell
He is going to Accrington Stanley, the club has $440.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A move Josh Kelly would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Josh Kelly is living that version at Cambridge United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cambridge United are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ben Knight runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dan Butler 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 Cambridge United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Sep 2026
Accrington Stanley paid $440.0K and Cambridge United took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Louis Appéré breaks a bone — 126 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cambridge United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dan Butler 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 Cambridge United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Cambridge United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayne Lavery 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dan Butler 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Shayne Lavery 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.
Squad17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dan Butler has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Cambridge United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Cambridge United turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Milton Keynes Dons will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominic Ball and Cambridge United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dominic Ball 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Cambridge United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayne Lavery 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
No place for Ben Knight in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ben Knight has his answer from Cambridge United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.