Marked for Hayden Hackney
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$21.8M on the table at Estoril Praia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market9 Aug 2027
The phone has started ringing about Kevin Schade again, and this time the name on the line is Bayern Munich. Everton are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Iliman N'Diaye 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Gustavo Charrupi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Everton
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Martinelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Gabriel Martinelli is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokeren had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market26 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Everton
Iliman N'Diaye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Everton
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Garner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Martinelli signs something — a contract at Everton or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Hayden Hackney has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Everton 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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 Hayden Hackney has written the date down.
Market26 Jul 2027
Everton have made Isaac Heath available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Everton can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Iliman N'Diaye 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Martinelli 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The James Garner talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Everton know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
The fee is $59.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ajax drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Everton
Iliman N'Diaye 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Milton Keynes Dons pay $1.3M, 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Everton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Martinelli 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.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
The town asked, and Everton paid $59.8M
Youri Baas was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $59.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everton asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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 Iliman N'Diaye is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Everton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Gabriel Martinelli 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A move Andrea Madio would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrea Madio is living that version at Everton, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A season average of 7.25 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
Sunderland will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Simon Moore has pre-agreed a move to Everton, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match17 Apr 2027
A 1‑0 win over Wolverhampton, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hayden Hackney, and the manager let it.