The mood at Grimsby Town has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jordan Wright is a Grimsby Town player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The chase for Lewis Ward ended with $230.0K changing hands and Swindon Town out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burnley have kept their man, and Grimsby Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9 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.
Something was said to Rodrigo Soria and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Will Wright is in the works
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
$5.5M on the table at Queens Park Rangers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$3.2M on the table at Cardiff 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 The request is on a desk at Newport County, and it is not being withdrawn.
Newport County asked and Birmingham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Courtney Baker-Richardson reports back to Newport County with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Grimsby Town paid $230.0K and Newport County took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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 Grimsby Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.3M on the table at Tranmere Rovers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$230.0K on the table at Newport County. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bolton Wanderers have kept their man, and Grimsby Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Josh Landers 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
The offer went to Birmingham 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.
The offer went to Swansea 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.
$840.0K was the most the club would pay and Wrexham 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.
$4.0K on the table at Barrow AFC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andy Cannon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Jordan Wright has come up in conversations Newport County were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Liam Shephard 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.
In brief
The dugoutMauricio Gómez asks for a word with the manager
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newport County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Coventry City have accepted the money. What Newport County do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barnet waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Newport County is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Newport County offered $5.3M; Swansea 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.
“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 Newport County, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Wigan Athletic 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andy Cannon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
$5.3M on the table at Swansea 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. James Crole was one of the reasons people came, and $600.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer went to Oxford United 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newport County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newport County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Newport County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andy Cannon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liam Shephard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jordan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newport County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andy Cannon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Liam Shephard 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” George Henderson, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Newport County, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Newport County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Liam Shephard 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” George Henderson, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Newport County, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newport County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon 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.
Matt Smith 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 point taken on 87 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Newport County have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
Player ratingsElliot Myles beats them one at a time
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Tranmere Rovers the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Newport County will enjoy reviewing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Newport County people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.60 beside his name.
Newport County asked and Queens Park Rangers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Charlie Penman 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.
Elliot Myles, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this 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 Newport County, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7.68, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Newport County had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andy Cannon'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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Liam Shephard 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Barrow AFC scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.