The words a physio says slowly. 56 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 The request is on a desk at Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nottingham Forest offered $2.1M; Chelsea 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.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nottingham Forest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Brandon Thomas has agreed terms with Tranmere Rovers for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Norman Bassette 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.
“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.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nottingham Forest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Nottingham Forest, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Nottingham Forest until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Callum Hudson-Odoi and Nottingham Forest agree another 4 years.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tottenham is saying, and nobody at Nottingham Forest is enjoying the guessing.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Newcastle United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Everton for Odysseas Vlachodimos 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.
Add another name to the list: Barcelona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Khéphren Thuram. The answer from Newcastle United has not changed — yet.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Newcastle United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hiroto Taniguchi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Nick Pope is somebody else's player now, and $34.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nottingham Forest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Nottingham Forest offered $5.1M; Sunderland 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.
Add another name to the list: Exeter City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jens Petter Hauge. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tottenham is saying, and nobody at Nottingham Forest is enjoying the guessing.
Cuiabano 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nick Pope and Nottingham Forest agree another 2 years.
“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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nottingham Forest 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Nick Pope: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Nottingham Forest asked and Fulham 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. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Position 18 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have shaken hands with Wolverhampton; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
“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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Up for the corner, and James Garner delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. James Garner scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Norwich City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Nottingham Forest 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.
Nottingham Forest and Norwich City have settled on $1.4M. 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.
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 7.85 for the rest of it.
Norman Bassette 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 Middlesbrough 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 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.
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.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Belenenses runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Nobody at Nottingham Forest will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Rodrigo Castillo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Arnaud Kalimuendo. 2‑1 against Leeds United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Leeds United held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Nottingham Forest answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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 Rodrigo Castillo is on it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Joshua Davis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Leny Yoro 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Muñoz wants continental football; whether Nottingham Forest can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Joshua Davis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Norman Bassette. 3‑1 against Burnley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Belenenses to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 99th minute. Preston will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Chances created: 18. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Eric da Silva Moreira 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.
Lamare Bogarde 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Domínguez provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I did not go to Newcastle United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nottingham Forest and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Nobody at Nottingham Forest will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ola Aina’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.
4 goals in 11 games at Sheffield United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jens Petter Hauge has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 goals in one match, Rodrigo Castillo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joshua Davis after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
Beaten 4 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
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.
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Leny Yoro 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.
“I watch every Nottingham Forest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Newcastle United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolò Savona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Nottingham Forest will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑3 to Tottenham, 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nottingham Forest, another week without a signature from Nicolò Savona.
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 dugout18 Sep 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Joshua Davis to a room that had heard them before.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Eric da Silva Moreira reports back to Nottingham Forest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Middlesbrough have kept their man, and Nottingham Forest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal that would have taken Nikola Milenković to Milton Keynes Dons 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.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 38 gone
That is the business done at Nottingham Forest until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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.
Chris Wood 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
8 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.
Manchester United pay $20.5M, 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nottingham Forest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nottingham Forest can tell you which week it ends in.
Nottingham Forest asked and Manchester 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nottingham Forest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nottingham Forest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7 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 phone has started ringing about Nikola Milenković again, and this time the name on the line is Reading. Nottingham Forest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nottingham Forest offered $480.0K; Manchester United 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nottingham Forest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nottingham Forest people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Domínguez 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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Sunderland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Reading for Nikola Milenković 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.
Newcastle United pay $12.1M, 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Central Coast Mariners waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arnaud Kalimuendo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Gannon Doak's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The offer went to Norwich 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.
Nottingham Forest asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wolverhampton waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nottingham Forest have gone to Southampton 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.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Omari Hutchinson. The answer from Nottingham Forest has not changed — yet.
“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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
4 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.
39 appearances at Newport County and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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.
“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.
Stoke City will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nottingham Forest were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnaud Kalimuendo provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nottingham Forest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ibrahim Sangaré scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Stoke City were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ibrahim Sangaré 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.
35 appearances at Newport County and the goals have stopped going in. Nottingham Forest lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nottingham Forest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
8 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.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
21 clean sheets from 29 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.
“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.
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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Nicolò Savona is on it.
35 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
John Victor is still being punished for one mistake
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Garner signs something — a contract at Nottingham Forest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
6 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nottingham Forest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
Steven Benda’s loan is measured in nothing happening
20 clean sheets from 27 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.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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 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.
Barnsley will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Max Watters has pre-agreed a move to Nottingham Forest, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Nottingham Forest asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Something was said to Arnaud Kalimuendo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
9 goals in 30 games at Bolton Wanderers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nottingham Forest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Newcastle United and Southampton have settled on $43.4M. 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $20.9M has been paid because Hiroto Taniguchi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Newcastle United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Newcastle United have gone to Crystal Palace 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.
“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 Newcastle United, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Hugo Ekitiké is living that version at Newcastle United, and it tends to show in the first month.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Newcastle United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of Nico González has come up in conversations Newcastle United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Edu Altozano 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 no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.