The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Burnley people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burnley can pretend not to have heard.
Burnley have gone to Leeds United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Burnley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Burnley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Burnley have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Southampton have accepted the money. What Burnley do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Damiano Menna has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Kalinin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Burnley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The chase for Mihail Polendakov ended with $2.7M changing hands and Mansfield Town out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Wolverhampton paid $2.2M and Burnley took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mihail Polendakov has, at Burnley, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Burnley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mihail Polendakov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
Burnley offered $9.5M; Exeter City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer went to Coventry City 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.
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomás Luna is living that version at Burnley, and it tends to show in the first month.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑6 to Nottingham Forest, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Position 20 on 19 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Burnley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Burnley and Nottingham Forest, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Barnsley will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kelechi Nwakali has pre-agreed a move to Burnley, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Burnley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quilindschy Hartman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Josh Cullen 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simon Moore will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Burnley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Josh Cullen 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Richard Allen to a room that had heard them before.
6 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.
Something was said to Jens Hjertø-Dahl and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaydon Banel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Burnley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Richard Allen, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nottingham Forest have kept their man, and Burnley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Olympique de Marseille pay $45.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Burnley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is going to Olympique de Marseille, the club has $45.9M 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burnley can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from West Bromwich Albion for Bashir Humphreys was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Burnley have done the hard part with Bournemouth, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filippo Marenco has just signed for Burnley, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
Lesley Ugochukwu 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Burnley can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Half the programme played, position 19, 8 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 1‑4 Richard Allen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simon Moore will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Burnley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burnley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyle Walker 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.
“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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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 0‑1 Richard Allen left the room before anybody could ask which.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Marcus Edwards was one of the reasons people came, and $22.5M does not replace that by itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Josh Cullen 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Harry Hill has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edward Turner is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadHannibal falls out with a teammate over standards
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Burnley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Marcus Edwards 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Derby County were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannibal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Burnley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burnley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Burnley are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannibal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Burnley has been clear about where Kortney Hause stands, which is more than many ever get.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burnley lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Mazzitelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Burnley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Igor 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Burnley will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tristan Crama wants continental football; whether Burnley can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Burnley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Oxford United made Burnley work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Burnley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kortney Hause 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.
Middlesbrough next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.