“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 The request is on a desk at Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.63, 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.
1‑2 to Wigan Athletic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Theo Outen 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
“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 Sonny Aljofree 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 Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
Squad18 Nov 2030
George Booth 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.
Something was said to Theo Outen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Wigan Athletic next, and one man in the Fleetwood Town dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Will Davies signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Fleetwood Town 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.
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 Kaidon Robinson has written the date down.
In brief
BoardroomThe Fleetwood Town production line keeps running
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aston Daley 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A 1‑0 win over Milton Keynes Dons, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
A mark of 7.81, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad11 Nov 2030
George Booth 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Aston Daley 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 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Fleetwood Town.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds 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 8.03 — 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.
Aston Daley 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.
“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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds 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.
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Fleetwood Town 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AFC Wimbledon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Tilley signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJamie Sterry asks for a word with the manager
MarketThe clock does Jamie Sterry’s negotiating for him
221Edition
The Fleetwood Town Post
21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondentUneasy
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
A brace, and Will Davies takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Will Davies provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Aston Daley 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Davis 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.
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.
Aston Daley and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Theo Outen 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sonny Aljofree 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 Darryl Ombang’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fleetwood Town needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 George Davies is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Fleetwood Town that is a harder question to answer.
Theo Outen 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.
He is 22 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cambridge United were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout30 Sep 2030
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Davis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Aston Daley 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.
Fleetwood Town ran out of time with Crawley Town. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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 7.19, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Theo Outen 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Aston Daley 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 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad16 Sep 2030
George Booth falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jamie Sterry has his answer from Fleetwood Town; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Fleetwood Town will try again when the window opens; Bournemouth may not be selling by then.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Swansea 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield United have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody at Fleetwood Town saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anthony Taylor and Fleetwood Town agree another 3 years.
Crawley Town have accepted the money. What Fleetwood Town do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Bournemouth 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.
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 7.70 for the rest of it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Newport County 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Manchester United is saying, and nobody at Fleetwood Town is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fleetwood Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Swansea 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.
$12.0K was the most the club would pay and Crawley 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.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining 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 Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
1 for Elliot Bonds, marked 7.70, 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.
The offer went to Newport County 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and AFC Wimbledon 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 clubs have shaken hands with Leeds United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The name of Isaiah Dada-Mascoll has come up in conversations Fleetwood Town were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
“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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Theo Outen 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Will Davies
$1.6M on the table at Bournemouth. 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. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Newport County, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Walsall said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Stockport County pay $120.0K, 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 has re-ordered his thinking and Carlos Acuña 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.
Fleetwood Town and Tranmere Rovers have settled on $140.0K. 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $3.1M; Aston Villa 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Walsall 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fleetwood Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Aston Villa 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 from Wycombe Wanderers for Fawaz Junaid 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fleetwood Town asked and Stoke 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.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Colchester United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fleetwood Town asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $260.0K; Milton Keynes Dons 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.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Newport County have accepted the money. What Fleetwood Town do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The name of Isaiah Dada-Mascoll has come up in conversations Fleetwood Town were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$660.0K was the most the club would pay and Leeds United 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fleetwood Town have made the call to Newcastle United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Eduardo Borges
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fleetwood Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Salford City for Owen Devonport 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.
$660.0K on the table at Leeds United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$260.0K on the table at Milton Keynes Dons. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leyton Orient have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Crewe Alexandra 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Fleetwood Town would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Fleetwood Town and Cardiff City have settled on $200.0K. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salford City have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fleetwood Town offered $100.0K; Burton Albion 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Carlos Acuña 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sonny Aljofree 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdul Abudu and Fleetwood Town agree another 4 years.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fleetwood Town have lost him in all but 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 Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kota Takai was one of the reasons people came, and $6.6M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have shaken hands with Stevenage; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Stevenage; Fleetwood Town go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The offer went to Burton Albion 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Barnsley have accepted the money. What Fleetwood Town do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$580.0K on the table at Salford 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Stevenage, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kota Takai signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of George Booth
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denver Hume signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Luca Davis has written the date down.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kota Takai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Fleetwood Town will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elliot Bonds was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Carlos Acuña 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Bambo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kota Takai signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
“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 dugout29 Apr 2030
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Anthony Evans to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anthony Evans after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kota Takai 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.
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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Harry Jackson, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sonny Aljofree 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fleetwood Town and Peterborough United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 3 saves does not settle it either way.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fleetwood Town, another week without a signature from Tiago Sá.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
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 0‑6 defeat, delivered by Anthony Evans to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Fleetwood Town is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds 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.
Peterborough United arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fleetwood Town has been clear about where Mohamed Emad stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
“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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Elliot Bonds 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.86, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
9 combined actions and 6.56. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ethan Roberts decided nobody was going anywhere. Tranmere Rovers had no time left to answer.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ethan Roberts 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bambo and Fleetwood Town agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Kota Takai 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aston Daley 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fleetwood Town has been clear about where Jamie Sterry stands, which is more than many ever get.
1 for Elliot Bonds, marked 7.49, 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Burton Albion ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Fleetwood Town equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“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.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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 Anthony Evans left the room before anybody could ask 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Kota Takai 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anthony Evans on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fleetwood Town ran out of time with Bradford City. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never 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 Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fleetwood Town ran out of time with Gillingham. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Leicester City will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Bart Kosiorek has pre-agreed a move to Fleetwood Town, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Add another name to the list: Rotherham United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fawaz Junaid. The answer from Fleetwood Town has not changed — yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Fleetwood Town and Gillingham have settled on $750.0K. 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.
7.96, 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Owen Devonport reports back to Fleetwood Town with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Fleetwood Town will try again when the window opens; Wrexham may not be selling by then.
Fleetwood Town offered $57.0K; Doncaster Rovers 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Shrewsbury Town 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.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Doncaster Rovers 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed with Oldham Athletic and then the doctor spoke. Fleetwood Town have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Oxford United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Arsenal is saying, and nobody at Fleetwood Town is enjoying the guessing.
Fleetwood Town offered $610.0K; Stockport County 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fleetwood Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Stockport County 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Chelsea keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kota Takai 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Doncaster Rovers have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Everton for Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Jamie Sterry, marked 7.72, 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Chelsea, 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 Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fleetwood Town asked and Leyton Orient 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
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.
Half the programme played, position 17, 29 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
SquadWords at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Kota Takai 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Fleetwood Town support went home talking about one name.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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.” Anthony Evans, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑3 against Peterborough United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anthony Evans after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Tilley signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Kota Takai 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
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 Anthony Evans left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stephen McMullan is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Kota Takai 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Elidon O'Boyle 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 is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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.” Anthony Evans kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Stephen McMullan has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fleetwood Town. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Denver Hume’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Kota Takai 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.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anthony Evans after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fleetwood Town hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elidon O'Boyle. 1‑0 against AFC Wimbledon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fleetwood Town has been clear about where Stephen McMullan stands, which is more than many ever get.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Anthony Evans could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutKota Takai asks for a word with the manager
Player ratingsJames Tilley beats them one at a time
10 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.
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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 Anthony Evans left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is James Tilley’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fleetwood Town needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kota Takai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fleetwood Town, another week without a signature from Kota Takai.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fleetwood Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 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 dugout8 Oct 2029
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Anthony Evans to a room that had heard them before.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Kota Takai 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.80, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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 dugout1 Oct 2029
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.” Anthony Evans chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Out, 0‑3 to Huddersfield Town, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fleetwood Town hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal that would have taken Fawaz Junaid to Stevenage has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Fleetwood Town with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bradford City moved on, Owen Devonport reports back to Fleetwood Town, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arian Mršulja is living that version at Fleetwood Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kota Takai 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Derby County have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Burnley 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 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fleetwood Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Burnley 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.
The offer from Bradford City for Owen Devonport 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.
15 combined actions and 7.13. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fleetwood Town asked and Derby County 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fleetwood Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Lincoln City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Shrewsbury 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.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Fleetwood Town
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Denver Hume 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Milton Keynes Dons have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
The offer went to Burnley 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $840.0K; 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
AFC Wimbledon paid $500.0K and Fleetwood Town took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kota Takai 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Denver Hume falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fleetwood Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Fleetwood Town is running low.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elidon O'Boyle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Shrewsbury Town 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crawley Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
$980.0K on the table at Burnley. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Notts County 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: Lincoln City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Finley Potter. The answer from Fleetwood Town has not changed — yet.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portsmouth have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town 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 Fleetwood Town 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Wycombe Wanderers for Sonny Aljofree 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.
$840.0K 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fawaz Junaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Junaid Seedat is living that version at Fleetwood Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bournemouth have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Bradford City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Owen Devonport. The answer from Fleetwood Town has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daeshon Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Finley Potter will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Burnley 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $840.0K; 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Huddersfield Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Daeshon Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fleetwood Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Carlos Acuña is living that version at Fleetwood Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fleetwood Town 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.
The offer from Bradford City for Owen Devonport 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.
Fleetwood Town have gone to Blackburn Rovers 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elidon O'Boyle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fleetwood Town offered $980.0K; Burnley 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.
Preston paid $1.2M and Fleetwood Town took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume 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 Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
$980.0K on the table at Burnley. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Hewitson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$120.0K 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Preston will make the call about Filip Marschall this week. Fleetwood Town have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Denver Hume 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town 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 Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fleetwood Town have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Everything agreed with Newcastle United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: Basel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filip Marschall. The answer from Fleetwood Town has not changed — yet.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fleetwood Town hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know it.
Fleetwood Town asked and Bournemouth said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shrewsbury Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Blackpool for Sonny Aljofree 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: Oxford United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$67.0K was the most the club would pay and West Bromwich Albion 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crawley Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with West Ham United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$67.0K on the table at West Bromwich Albion. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Grimsby Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Cremonese 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daeshon Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fleetwood Town 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fleetwood Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Fleetwood Town would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brighton watched Filip Marschall again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Aston Daley 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fleetwood Town know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fleetwood Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daeshon Lawrence 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fleetwood Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Mohamed Emad has written the date down.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luke Hewitson has his answer from Fleetwood Town; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fleetwood Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 16 on 57 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. John Lawrence 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. Jack Spencer 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. Nicholas 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fleetwood Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fleetwood Town know 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.
A 1‑0 win over Crewe Alexandra, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
James Tilley was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
0‑3 against Lincoln City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume 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 Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 0‑3 Anthony Evans left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Isaiah Dada-Mascoll's mistake
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Will Davies and Fleetwood Town agree another 4 years.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.46, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Benjamin Murray. 2‑0 against Oldham Athletic, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daeshon Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oldham Athletic next, and one man in the Fleetwood Town dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fleetwood Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Hewitson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Fleetwood Town pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anthony Evans was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Fleetwood Town dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jack Hunt
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Denver Hume 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town 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.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town 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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daeshon Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fleetwood Town has been clear about where Isaiah Dada-Mascoll stands, which is more than many ever get.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fleetwood Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fleetwood Town can tell you which week it ends in.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 Kota Takai, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anthony Evans was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Fleetwood Town dressing room was either.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.53, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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 Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fleetwood Town can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fleetwood Town asked and Derby County 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fleetwood Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Up for the corner, and Elliot Bonds delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Elliot Bonds scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer from Northampton Town for Owen Devonport 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Coventry 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.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
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.
That is the business done at Fleetwood Town 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elidon O'Boyle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fleetwood Town had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Blackpool, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$290.0K was the most the club would pay and Wrexham 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.
Fleetwood Town asked and Peterborough 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denver Hume 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aston Daley and Fleetwood Town agree another 4 years.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Accrington Stanley waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Finley Potter reports back to Fleetwood Town with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Liverpool keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer went to Wrexham 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $460.0K; Plymouth Argyle 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Fleetwood Town asked and Preston 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fleetwood Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Liverpool, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Queens Park Rangers paid $1.4M and Fleetwood Town took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$460.0K on the table at Plymouth Argyle. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fleetwood Town offered $78.0K; Rotherham 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shrewsbury Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fleetwood Town and Blackpool have settled on $1.5M. 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.
Fleetwood Town offered $690.0K; 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.
$78.0K on the table at Rotherham United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Denver Hume 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burnley have kept their man, and Fleetwood Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Northampton Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fleetwood Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$690.0K on the table at Sheffield United. 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. Fleetwood Town have done the hard part with Crystal Palace, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaiah Dada-Mascoll 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 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.
“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 Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fleetwood Town will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ben Tree will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fleetwood Town heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denver Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Crawley Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Fleetwood Town and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.