“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Philadelphia Union, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ezekiel Kwame Alladoh and Philadelphia Union agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Philadelphia Union pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Léo Borges will call it something else in private.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Philadelphia Union, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Frankie Westfield reports back to Philadelphia Union with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
At 28 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Philadelphia Union have a decision that made itself.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Facundo Pereyra keeps the shirt for now, at Philadelphia Union's convenience rather than his own.
DC United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3-0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Philadelphia Union were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Philadelphia Union, and 0 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Facundo Pereyra will call it something else in private.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejandro Bedoya and Philadelphia Union agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Philadelphia Union, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Olwethu Makhanya may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Philadelphia Union know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Jesús Bueno keeps the shirt for now, at Philadelphia Union's convenience rather than his own.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Facundo Pereyra has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Philadelphia Union know, and have known for weeks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Philadelphia Union have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Philadelphia Union they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Philadelphia Union has to find a result from somewhere.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Philadelphia Union know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Philadelphia Union has to find a result from somewhere.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Philadelphia Union they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The captaincy has been taken off Milan Iloski. Philadelphia Union will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.