Marked for Elliot Panicco
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jeisson Palacios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Yazbek 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Patrick Yazbek
“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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christian Moore is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 dugout14 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 Elliot Panicco has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Xavier Valdez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nashville SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Joe Willis 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jeisson Palacios 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 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
Elias Saad 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 Elias Saad is on it.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Patrick Yazbek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nashville SC say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Patrick Yazbek: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nashville SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jeisson Palacios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Yazbek 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 dugout16 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Jack Maher asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Joe Willis 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeisson Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mark Musah 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Bryan Acosta
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hany Mukhtar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nobody at Nashville SC 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 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 Nashville SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Patrick Yazbek 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jack Maher, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nashville SC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Nashville SC would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Joe Willis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeisson Palacios 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 Thomas Williams is on it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Joe Willis 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Yazbek 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 dugout14 Sep 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Brenden Steffen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Nashville SC take on the side everybody is chasing
Inter Miami CF arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hany Mukhtar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes Bryan Acosta a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nashville SC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market14 Sep 2026
Nashville SC have let the market know Warren Madrigal can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.