Marked for Sean Davis
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Feb 2027
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market1 Feb 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether San Jose Earthquakes can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 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 San Jose Earthquakes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Beau LeRoux, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Daniel Munie has moved up it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Jose Earthquakes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market1 Feb 2027
The Angus Gunn story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Angus Gunn signs something — a contract at San Jose Earthquakes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at San Jose Earthquakes is running low.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. San Jose Earthquakes had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Arango and San Jose Earthquakes agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 54 days on the sidelines for Sean Davis, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Preston Judd 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
No hiding place for Noel Buck
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noel Buck, and the manager let it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Cristian Arango’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Aaron Long knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Jose Earthquakes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Jose Earthquakes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan González, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nathan Crockford and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
13 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ousséni Bouda 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 Ousséni Bouda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 Luka Jovanović has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Eduard Löwen wants to know where this is going
“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 San Jose Earthquakes hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Preston Judd 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vítor Costa wants continental football; whether San Jose Earthquakes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. San Jose Earthquakes have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at San Jose Earthquakes, another week without a signature from Angus Gunn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Sean Davis behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. San Jose Earthquakes will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad3 Aug 2026
10 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rokas Pukstas is in the works
San Jose Earthquakes have made the call to Middlesbrough. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.