Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Nicholas Moore left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romoney Crichlow 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.
Álex Soage 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barnet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
James Cordoba 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.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barnet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Barnet can tell you which week it ends in.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Cheltenham Town were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Barnet will try again when the window opens; Wolverhampton may not be selling by then.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Danny Collinge 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.
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Sunderland were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jakub Kaczemba is living that version at Barnet, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
10 new faces, and Barnet are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barnet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Barnet 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.
$750.0K was the most the club would pay and Everton were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Sunderland this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Cheltenham Town this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Danny Collinge 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oliwier Butrym has just signed for Barnet, and for once the answer mattered.
Barnet asked and Norwich City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Leicester City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Barnet have gone to Everton 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barnet have done the hard part with Huddersfield Town, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$800.0K was the most the club would pay and Wigan Athletic were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kabongo Tshimanga provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$960.0K was the most the club would pay and Stoke City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Barnet had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Leicester City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Barnet asked and Sheffield Wednesday said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Fleetwood Town spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barnet have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Barnet offered $3.3M; Stoke City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer went to Stoke City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
$3.3M on the table at Stoke City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Barnet have gone to Wolverhampton 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.
Barnet offered $220.0K; Wolverhampton said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fleetwood Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Callum Stead trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barnet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nicholas Moore has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Barnet and Swindon Town have settled on $190.0K. 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.
$960.0K on the table at Stoke City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Wycombe Wanderers this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Wycombe Wanderers 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barnet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Barnet have gone to Stoke City 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.
Barnet offered $960.0K; Stoke City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Barnet had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Leicester City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Barnet have gone to Wolverhampton 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Barnet and Derby County have settled on $780.0K. 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.
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Stoke City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“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.
$960.0K on the table at Stoke City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Wycombe Wanderers this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Danny Collinge 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.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Barnet have gone to Stoke City 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.
$840.0K on the table at Wrexham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barnet have done the hard part with Leicester City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barnet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Barnet offered $1.5M; Watford said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Barnet have gone to Wycombe Wanderers 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
5 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.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“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.
Barnet have gone to Watford 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.
Barnet have gone to Wycombe Wanderers 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barnet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Barnet. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The deal with Queens Park Rangers 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.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Barnet offered $110.0K; Reading said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barnet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Trey Ogunsuyi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer went to Reading this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Barnet are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Queens Park Rangers, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stevenage have kept their man, and Barnet go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Danny Collinge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Barnet 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.
In brief
The dugoutRhys Browne knocks on the manager's door
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Barnet. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
SquadDanny Collinge is training like a man with a point to make
41Edition
The Barnet Herald
10 May 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
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.
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.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 34 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nicholas Moore has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Position 17 on 54 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Damola Ajayi did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
1 for Nnamdi Ofoborh, marked 7.96, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Shelton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nicholas Moore, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Harry Smith and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kabongo Tshimanga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicholas Moore after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matthew Cox trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Danny Collinge’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Barnet needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ben Winterburn scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Barnet and Grimsby Town in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ben Winterburn has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Barnet.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Nnamdi Ofoborh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Barnet told Nikola Tavares something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Grimsby Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Myles Kenlock has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to Oldham Athletic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Nicholas Moore left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at Barnet 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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Barnet squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Missing football is its own punishment and it has now been paid in full. Barnet get a player back, and whoever has been deputising gets the conversation nobody enjoys.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Barnet scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Harry Smith. 1‑0 against Swindon Town, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Shelton 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.
Something was said to Jamal Lewis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7.49, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Barnet had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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.” Nicholas Moore kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jamal Lewis 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Britt Assombalonga and Barnet agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
Milton Keynes Dons held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Barnet answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Barnet, another week without a signature from Jack Senior.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Damola Ajayi did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Barnet can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
Danny Collinge 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mark Shelton 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
The goal that put Salford City ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Barnet equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nikola Tavares will call it something else in private.
Something was said to Rhys Browne and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nicholas Moore, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Chesterfield left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mark Shelton, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Nicholas Moore left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Adam Senior is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Damola Ajayi
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barnet have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Barnet 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.
The deal with Aston Villa 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.
The offer went to Nottingham Forest this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Shelton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Barnet offered $380.0K; Nottingham Forest said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Idris Kanu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Harry Smith. 1‑0 against Notts County, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Accrington Stanley will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Damola Ajayi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.61
A mark of 8.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Nnamdi Ofoborh, marked 7.54, 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.
$380.0K on the table at Nottingham Forest. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Burton Albion paid $260.0K and Barnet took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nnamdi Ofoborh. 3‑2 against Accrington Stanley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Brighton; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Shelton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Danny Collinge 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Barnet, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Danny Collinge has his answer from Barnet; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nnamdi Ofoborh scored, was marked 7.52, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Barnet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Kanu 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicholas Moore after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Cheltenham Town next, and one man in the Barnet dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Barnet 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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Barnet was different afterwards.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Mark Shelton on the training pitch
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barnet have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicholas Moore after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Nnamdi Ofoborh has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Colchester United next, and one man in the Barnet dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Barnet is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The goal that put Oldham Athletic ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Barnet equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ryan Glover
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ryan Glover has come out of that comparison in the side, and Barnet have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nicholas Moore could afford to be generous.
It needed Nnamdi Ofoborh to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Oldham Athletic, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Swindon Town will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Barnet were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jacob Labovitz 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Swindon Town were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nicholas Moore on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Harry Smith has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Britt Assombalonga 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Kanu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicholas Moore was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Barnet dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Harry Smith trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emmanuel Osadebe’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Barnet needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Barnet 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.
Damola Ajayi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicholas Moore after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
The dugoutRhys Browne knocks on the manager's door
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Barnet can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Barnet, and 1 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matthew Cox has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicholas Moore after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Barnet is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Salford City next, and one man in the Barnet dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Barnet was different afterwards.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Barnet. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Callum Stead has his answer from Barnet; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nicholas Moore on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Idris Kanu 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.
George Lloyd 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.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Barnet are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cambridge United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barnet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutBen Winterburn has become a man the manager trusts
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ben Winterburn is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Chesterfield left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Idris Kanu 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.
Jacob Labovitz 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Idris Kanu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Barnet.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nicholas Moore to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Boardroom87% of the income goes out in wages at Barnet
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
At 23 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.
Something was said to Callum Stead and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Looking aheadBarnet take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutBetão left out for tactical reasons at Barnet
Luton Town go through and Barnet go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Harry Smith 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.
At 22 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Barnet know which stage they are at.
Dennis Adeniran 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nnamdi Ofoborh's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
5 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.
“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 Barnet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Barnet 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.
Barnet had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tottenham, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Barnet will try again when the window opens; Reading may not be selling by then.
A loan enquiry to West Ham United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutAdam Senior knocks on the manager’s door
“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.
Barnet had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at West Bromwich Albion, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Barnet have gone to Port Vale 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.
Add another name to the list: Floriana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oli Hawkins. The answer from Barnet has not changed — yet.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Tavares trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Rhys Browne
Damola Ajayi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Barnet asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Harrogate Town held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Barnet answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Nicholas Moore left the room before anybody could ask which.
West Bromwich Albion 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.
Wycombe Wanderers 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Birkirkara for Oli Hawkins 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Portsmouth keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Barnet asked and Swansea City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jacob Labovitz 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Barnet, another week without a signature from Jack Senior.
Barnet have made the call to Queens Park Rangers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. George Lloyd is living that version at Barnet, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: West Ham United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simon Clark 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Richard Cooper 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. George James 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. John Price 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.
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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Harry Smith is a Barnet player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Nnamdi Ofoborh’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A loan enquiry to Sheffield United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Barnet have made the call to West Ham United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Barnet has been clear about where Oli Hawkins stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Barnet, another week without a signature from Britt Assombalonga.