The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Blackpool have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
6.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Blackpool have done the hard part with Wolverhampton, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Harry Gray. 4‑3 against Stevenage, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Blackpool lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Harry Gray did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Wolverhampton is saying, and nobody at Blackpool is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burton Albion have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aston Villa is saying, and nobody at Blackpool is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Andy Lyons 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.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Blackpool lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ayoub Aleesami 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.
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. Blackpool will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Blackpool lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$1.1M on the table at Southampton. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leighton Clarkson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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. Blackpool will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
In brief
The dugoutZac Ashworth has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$12.8M on the table at Chelsea. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Southampton 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.
Blackpool asked and Wrexham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error 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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.1M on the table at Southampton. 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. Blackpool have done the hard part with Hull City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Blackpool will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
$5.6M on the table at Leicester 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
Blackpool asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
7 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 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Dale Taylor 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Blackpool know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
He is going to Bolton Wanderers, the club has $3.2M 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.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bolton Wanderers pay $3.2M, 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.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Barnsley drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leighton Clarkson and Blackpool agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer went to Everton 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bolton Wanderers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Blackpool is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Blackpool and Barnsley have settled on $1.2M. 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.
The chase for Daniel Cummings ended with $3.2M changing hands and West Ham United out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$3.1M on the table at Leicester 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.
Blackpool offered $1.8M; Crystal Palace 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Daniel Cummings from West Ham United for $3.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with West Ham United 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.
Blackpool have gone to Crystal Palace 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 Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Blackpool will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Hazeem Bakre has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Blackpool have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Plymouth Argyle have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackpool, another week without a signature from Cameron McGeehan.
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.
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 Karoy Anderson is on it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leighton Clarkson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordan Brown trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Oliver Casey is on it.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dan Sassi 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.
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 Michael Obafemi is on it.
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 Grant Smith has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Obafemi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ayoub Aleesami’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Blackpool 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Blackpool has been clear about where Hayden Coulson stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Blackpool told George Honeyman something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackpool, another week without a signature from Tom Bloxham.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Blackpool. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 45 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Henry Cartwright scored, was marked 7.58, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Henry Cartwright 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Barnsley had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Blackpool are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
7 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 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 dugout19 Apr 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 Harry Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Karoy Anderson'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.
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.
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.
Michael Obafemi 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Obafemi 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dale Taylor, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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 Harry Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ayoub Aleesami 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.
Dan Sassi 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Baily Cargill’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Blackpool needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Grant Smith has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dale Taylor signs something — a contract at Blackpool or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Blackpool lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Cameron McGeehan scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Blackpool know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ayoub Aleesami 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackpool, another week without a signature from Grant Smith.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Josh Bowler
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Up for the corner, and Jordan Brown delivers — 7.33
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jordan Brown scored, was marked 7.33, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
At 21 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.
A 1‑0 win over Wycombe Wanderers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Blackpool can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackpool, another week without a signature from Cameron McGeehan.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, 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 Leighton Clarkson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sam Chambers did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jordan Brown 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.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ayoub Aleesami 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.71, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Blackpool close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Dan Sassi 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.
Blackpool have made the call to Liverpool. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The deal with Rotherham United 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.
Blackpool asked and Leicester 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.
He is 23 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.
A 1‑0 win over Northampton Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑4 to Reading, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Charlton Athletic pay $830.0K, 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout18 Jan 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 0‑4 Harry Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
Blackpool have made the call to Birmingham. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sam Chambers did not need any: 8.44, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Blackpool offered $5.1M; Sheffield United 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aston Villa have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Aleesami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Bradford City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Blackpool told Leighton Clarkson something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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.” Harry Stewart, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Blackpool can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout21 Dec 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 0‑2 Harry Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at Blackpool 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Doncaster Rovers in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.06, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Blackpool will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Harry Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lincoln City? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Huddersfield Town in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Marked 6.92 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Harry Stewart after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ruairi McConville has come out of that comparison in the side, and Blackpool have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Grant Smith trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7.54, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Blackpool had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Peterborough United next, and one man in the Blackpool dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Something was said to Silko Thomas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Harry Stewart, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Michael Obafemi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Michael Obafemi is on it.
Rotherham United next, and one man in the Blackpool dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Grant Smith has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henry Cartwright signs something — a contract at Blackpool or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Next up on the road: Rotherham United, position 17. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Nottingham Forest go through and Blackpool go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.54 for the rest of it.
Marked 7.00 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.18, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Dan Sassi 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ruairi McConville is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
16 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 dugout26 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 Harry Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Successful dribbles: 9. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Karoy Anderson is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It needed Michael Obafemi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cardiff City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Harry Stewart was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Blackpool dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Blackpool has been clear about where Hayden Coulson stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zac Ashworth’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Blackpool needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruairi McConville is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Niall Ennis has his answer from Blackpool; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Exeter City will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Blackpool were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Josh Bowler was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
8.05. 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.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Grant Smith
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Michael Obafemi 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: 16. 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.
15 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 dugout28 Sep 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 Harry Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Michael Obafemi 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Harry Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Leighton Clarkson, marked 7.88, 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.
Blackpool offered $23.0K; Bradford 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.
Blackpool asked and Wrexham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Dan Sassi 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.
In brief
The dugoutGrant Smith dropped after a run of poor form
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Blackpool can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Blackpool 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sporting CP keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Bradford 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.
Blackpool asked and Middlesbrough said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blackpool, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $135.0K — a club that wants Nathan Opoku enough to be asked twice.
Leicester City wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bournemouth have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Grant Smith, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Blackpool 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.
Blackpool asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aston Villa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The chase for Baily Cargill ended with $150.0K changing hands and Mansfield Town out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Blackpool have gone to Leicester 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Blackpool have done the hard part with Mansfield Town, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Blackpool 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Blackpool
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dale Taylor 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. John Cunningham is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Phillips 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. Stephen Smith 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Henry Cartwright has just signed for Blackpool, and for once the answer mattered.
Michael Obafemi 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Blackpool will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Blackpool, another week without a signature from Cameron McGeehan.
Blackpool have made the call to Leicester City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Sheffield United 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Blackpool go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Blackpool 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.
Norwich City 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.
Leeds United 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.