Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotherham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$3.0M on the table at Brentford. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Rotherham United asked and Brentford 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotherham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Stockport County 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.
“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; Rotherham United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rotherham United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Rotherham United 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.
Blackburn Rovers paid $5.3M and Rotherham United took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Rotherham United offered $2.8M; Crystal Palace 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.
The chase for Michael Reindorf ended with $330.0K changing hands and Chesterfield 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 Rotherham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rotherham United asked and Stockport County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadFacundo Castro falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Jili Buyabu's mistake
Kian Spence 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 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Kamara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dajaune Brown signs something — a contract at Rotherham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Rotherham United 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.” Rotherham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotherham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jack Payne has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rotherham United have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dajaune Brown 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kian Spence. 1‑0 against Bromley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotherham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kian Spence 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamadou Kanté 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.
Derby County will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alex Pritchard has pre-agreed a move to Rotherham United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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; Rotherham United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hayden Hackney provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The name of Marvin Kaleta has come up in conversations Rotherham United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everything agreed with Swindon Town, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Mohamadou Kanté 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamadou Kanté 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
It needed David Kamara to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Shrewsbury Town, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kian Spence trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mohamadou Kanté 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamadou Kanté 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.
“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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Ar'jany Martha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotherham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.72 for the rest of it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Harrogate Town moved on, Hamish Douglas reports back to Rotherham United, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Kian Spence 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.
At 19 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.
“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; Rotherham United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
$8.9M was the most the club would pay and Norwich City 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.
The offer from Millwall for Merlin Röhl 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.
Rotherham United paid $8.6M and Everton took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Swindon Town moved on, James Tarkowski reports back to Everton, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Hayden Hackney ended with $8.6M changing hands and Everton out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
117 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Rotherham United close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sverrir Páll Hjaltested has just signed for Rotherham United, and for once the answer mattered.
$530.0K on the table at Aston Villa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$510.0K on the table at Oldham Athletic. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$530.0K was the most the club would pay and Aston Villa 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rotherham United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Everton is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Venezia 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 terraces30 Aug 2027
The mood at Everton 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.
“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 Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
$10.0M was the most the club would pay and Newcastle United 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.
$6.8M 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tyrique George did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotherham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Rotherham United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nottingham Forest wanted more than $2.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
1 for Kian Spence, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
$210.0K on the table at Gillingham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hayden Hackney had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The name of James Tarkowski has come up in conversations Everton were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joseph Clark has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Jordan Pickford has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Everton are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“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 Everton, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Merlin Röhl wants continental football; whether Everton can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Michael Keane 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.
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.
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 name of Jake O'Brien has come up in conversations Everton were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Everton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Everton will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
14 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.
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.
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.
Brentford paid $6.5M and Everton took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vitaliy Mykolenko wants continental football; whether Everton can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The offer from Rotherham United for Omari Benjamin 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.
“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 Everton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Everton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hayden Hackney had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
Justin Kluivert 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Justin Clarke is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 chase for Dean Henderson ended with $9.5M changing hands and Crystal Palace out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Plymouth Argyle for James Tarkowski 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Everton can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 18 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.
Malik Olayiwola 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kelvin John 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.
Everton have gone to Ipswich Town 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.
Everton and West Ham United have settled on $13.5M. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Everton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everton have gone to Ipswich Town 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Stephen Jones has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
“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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $104.0M — a club that wants Julio Enciso enough to be asked twice.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Stephen Jones to a room that had heard them before.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Tyler Dibling is somebody else's player now, and $340.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
In brief
The dugoutMerlin Röhl has become a man the manager trusts
Manchester City go through and Everton go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
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.
Merlin Röhl 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.
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Stephen Jones left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Stephen Jones after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Hayden Hackney obliged against West Ham United. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Everton.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Everton have paid $23.0M for Justin Kluivert, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$17.9M on the table at Bournemouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Everton 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Everton can pretend not to have heard.
Everton offered $7.0M; West Bromwich Albion 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $18.9M — a club that wants James Hill enough to be asked twice.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 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.
Merlin Röhl 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Everton has been clear about where Carlos Alcaraz stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
4 goals in 11 games at Port Vale — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Everton updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Carlos Alcaraz 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hayden Hackney trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Everton is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 24 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.
It needed James Garner to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against West Ham United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Stephen Jones after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Everton can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.18, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
8.39. 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.
Michael Keane 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Stephen Jones could afford to be generous.