Thimothée Lo-Tutala 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.
Squad31 May 2027
James Sasere 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rob Hunt trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Conor Coady 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 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Colchester United had all but put away. Swindon Town will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Christopher Bennett after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Duván Riascos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutMicah Mbick has become a man the manager trusts
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ezra Mayers did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colchester United can pretend not to have heard.
2 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Conor Coady 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 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 easiest signature of my career.” Adrian Akande and Colchester United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Colchester United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for James McConnell is in the works
“The easiest signature of my career.” Conor Coady and Colchester United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Conor Coady 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 warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. JK Gordon 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Colchester United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Dani Ángel has moved up it.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 Colchester United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$400.0K was the most the club would pay and Oxford United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Charlie Goode 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.
Colchester United asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A season-long audition: Barakaldo still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Colchester United's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Colchester United will try not to make too much of it.