Cheltenham Town have gone to Queens Park Rangers 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.
The new man at Cheltenham Town has worked with Kamarl Grant before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Cheltenham Town the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Shaun McWilliams has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Everything agreed with Coventry City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cheltenham Town 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 Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Bolton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Cheltenham Town is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Colchester United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Myles Roberts signs something — a contract at Cheltenham Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cheltenham Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riquelme Thompson-Jones was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Cheltenham Town 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cheltenham Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Something was said to Ryan Broom and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Oldham Athletic in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.