Marked for Tom Barlow
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Cincinnati this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brian Anunga 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 20 days on the sidelines for Noah Franke, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tom Barlow is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Tom Barlow has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evan Louro, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Ayoub Jabbari gets picked when it counts
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 Ayoub Jabbari is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Miles Robinson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at FC Cincinnati training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Barlow 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Brian Anunga 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 Brian Anunga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market30 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bryan Ramírez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes Kyle Smith a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Cincinnati. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Miles Robinson 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 22 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gerardo Valenzuela and FC Cincinnati agree another 4 years.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Brian Anunga 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tom Barlow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Miles Robinson 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
David Douděra did the work nobody counts — 7.10
12 combined actions and 7.10. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tom Barlow 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
FC Cincinnati are still strangers to each other
13 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. FC Cincinnati lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Atlanta United FC came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market28 Sep 2026
The Pavel Bucha story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pavel Bucha signs something — a contract at FC Cincinnati or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Kévin Denkey takes the afternoon — 9.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kévin Denkey provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from KV Oostende for Obinna Nwobodo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pavel Bucha 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over CF Montreal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tom Barlow 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tom Barlow slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tom Barlow is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Gerardo Valenzuela
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gerardo Valenzuela has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Cincinnati have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 FC Cincinnati, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.84, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: KV Oostende have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Obinna Nwobodo. The answer from FC Cincinnati has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Miles Robinson 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Columbus Crew, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tom Barlow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at FC Cincinnati
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” James Robinson kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
KAA Gent come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FC Cincinnati did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kévin Denkey reports back to FC Cincinnati with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $4.5M sale of Evander
He is going to Racing Genk, the club has $4.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market17 Aug 2026
Racing Genk pay $4.5M, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Cincinnati this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tom Barlow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.