Marked for Jack Taylor
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shaqueel van Persie, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Crawley Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthew Smith, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Adrian Akande and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Matt Macey hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colchester United can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Colchester United asked and Estoril Praia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Colchester United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Tom Smith reports back to Colchester United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Jack Taylor
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Colchester United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Zach Abbott makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Matthew Smith 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 Colchester United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
Idris Kanu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barnet can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Leyton Orient is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match29 Aug 2026
Barnet make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Barnet have 4 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Barnet did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Barnet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Tranmere Rovers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout31 Aug 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 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.” Thomas Allen kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Preston, and it could have been more.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Ipswich Town have gone to Club America 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ipswich Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from RC Strasbourg for Cédric Kipré 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$140.0K settles it between the clubs for Curtis Tilt
Bradford City have accepted the money. What Ipswich Town do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Birmingham wanted more than $600.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julio Enciso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Idris Kanu
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Norwich City is saying, and nobody at Barnet is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Barnet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Fleetwood Town made Barnet work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Ipswich Town have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Thomas Allen could afford to be generous.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Barnet
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben Winterburn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Ipswich Town and Bournemouth have settled on $10.0M. 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
West Bromwich Albion wanted more than $3.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Ipswich Town — 7.68
1 for Saša Lukić, marked 7.68, 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.6M — a club that wants Róbert Boženík enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Florentino Luís and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Ipswich Town
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jaden Philogene. 3‑1 against Sheffield United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luton Town have kept their man, and Barnet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Richard Shaw has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Morgan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Robert Scott joins the Barnet first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Scott is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Liam Carter 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dalbert has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Barnet know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Barnet
Ben Winterburn and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Barnet will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Ipswich Town: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Zak Sturge is in the works
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Matěj Jurásek is in the works
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Squad
6 new faces, and Barnet are still learning each other
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brentford have kept their man, and Ipswich Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Ipswich Town have gone to Bournemouth 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The chase for Lamine Cissé ended with $5.0M changing hands and Stoke City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Ipswich Town have gone to Birmingham 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $630.0K — a club that wants Lee Buchanan enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julio Enciso and Ipswich Town agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Florentino Luís 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.