“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 The request is on a desk at Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nottingham Forest and Stoke City have settled on $3.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
$11.1M on the table at Chesterfield. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Blackpool paid $5.1M and Nottingham Forest took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Add another name to the list: Portsmouth have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikola Milenković. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.0M — a club that wants Tomáš Rigo enough to be asked twice.
Nottingham Forest offered $21.1M; Norwich 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.
He is going to Arsenal, the club has $89.3M 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 Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $10.0M — a club that wants Taylor Harwood-Bellis enough to be asked twice.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ryan Yates 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.
Rodrigo Castillo 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
23 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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; Nottingham Forest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
9 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nottingham Forest has to find a result from somewhere.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nottingham Forest heard it as anything else.
26 appearances at Plymouth Argyle and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nottingham Forest know it.
Neco Williams 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omari Hutchinson provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Nottingham Forest are no longer polite ones.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
17 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns 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 Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nottingham Forest have done the hard part with Derby County, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nottingham Forest asked and Norwich City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Saša Kalajdžić is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Cambridge United pay $120.0K, 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.
Loan watch31 Jan 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The offer went to Fluminense 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.
$13.3M on the table at Norwich City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dan Ndoye wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nottingham Forest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ibrahim Sangaré 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Joshua Davis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Chris Wood is on it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nottingham Forest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Fulham defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The deal that would have taken Murillo to Watford has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Nottingham Forest will try again when the window opens; Derby County may not be selling by then.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nottingham Forest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Chris Wood 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Esapa Osong 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.
Position 13 on 41 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Murillo scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nottingham Forest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Nottingham Forest can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout24 May 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morgan Gibbs-White signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting John Victor's mistake
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kanye Bradshaw and Nottingham Forest agree another 3 years.
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joshua Davis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nottingham Forest dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James McAtee trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Newcastle United had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nottingham Forest has been clear about where Nicolás Domínguez stands, which is more than many ever get.
It needed Chris Wood to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Newcastle United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joshua Davis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Nottingham Forest dressing room was either.
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.
“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 Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nottingham Forest told James McAtee something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nottingham Forest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stephy Mavididi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nottingham Forest needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5 goals in 19 games at Vasco da Gama — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Nottingham Forest have no good answer.
“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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Scott Hamilton 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ibrahim Sangaré scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Exeter City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nottingham Forest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Nottingham Forest know now that the thought has arrived.
The offer from Chelsea for Morgan Gibbs-White 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.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nottingham Forest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Chris Wood 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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nottingham Forest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nottingham Forest asked and Burnley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Domínguez wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
9 goals in 21 games at Eintracht Frankfurt — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Joshua Davis on the draw
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Nottingham Forest will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I did not go to Exeter City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Nottingham Forest and Leicester City have settled on $10.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Nottingham Forest asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nottingham Forest can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nottingham Forest can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.