Marked for Ryan Yates
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alavés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market30 Jul 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Words exchanged at Alavés
Iker Bravo 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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Abdelmalek Kelaleche 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
Alavés asked and Valencia 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 dugout30 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Enrique Ortega
“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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
Alavés have made the call to Ponferradina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
Valencia have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market30 Jul 2035
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jul 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Alavés
Kevin Barcella and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
Alavés asked and Ponferradina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jul 2035
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
A loan move for Rubén Hernández is in the works
Alavés have made the call to Oviedo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
Héctor Preciado 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.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alavés, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market23 Jul 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mikel Rodríguez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Nov 2034
Reynel Garzón hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millwall can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Teodor Raykov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teodor Raykov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millwall the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom13 Nov 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Teodor Raykov 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Stephen Mfuni 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
A falling-out at Millwall
Kamil Cybulski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Nov 2034
A 2‑1 win over West Bromwich Albion, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Yuel Helafu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millwall can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
Ryan Yates gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millwall can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Sep 2034
Tom Georgiou has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millwall they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2034
Millwall offered $250.0K; Grimsby Town 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Millwall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephen Mfuni 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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2034
Millwall 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Maksimilian Lazarov 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
“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; Millwall are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Sep 2034
The medical room confirms 44 days on the sidelines for Jonathan Cunningham, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Loan watch11 Sep 2034
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Millwall, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market12 Jun 2034
Mamadou Camara has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millwall they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Millwall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephen Mfuni 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market12 Jun 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Millwall, another week without a signature from Diego Pisani.
Squad12 Jun 2034
A falling-out at Millwall
Ilija Đilas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
Diego Pisani knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Pisani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
Leo Weinkauf 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.