The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Milton Keynes Dons is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ryan Wintle 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Aaron Collins 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sam Nombe. 1‑0 against Bromley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ben Wiles 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.
Milton Keynes Dons asked and Colchester 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.
Marlon Pack 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Callum Paterson. 1‑0 against Salford City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Milton Keynes Dons lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4 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.
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Ryan Wintle and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Aaron Collins 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Fullah 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.
The phone has started ringing about Pedro Cauã again, and this time the name on the line is Podbrezova. Milton Keynes Dons are listening politely and promising nothing.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Milton Keynes Dons lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trento waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Milton Keynes Dons is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barrow AFC is saying, and nobody at Milton Keynes Dons is enjoying the guessing.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Collins is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 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.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Milton Keynes Dons lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Milton Keynes Dons have done the hard part with Portsmouth, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tom Finch has agreed terms with Cheltenham Town for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Finch will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Milton Keynes Dons the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aaron Collins 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ben Wiles 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Ryan Wintle 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 had been thinking. Aaron Collins 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. Wrexham have kept their man, and Milton Keynes Dons go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ben Wiles 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. Hull City have kept their man, and Milton Keynes Dons go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ben Wiles falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Milton Keynes Dons told Jack Sanders something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Clark chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Collins 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 Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Clark chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Milton Keynes Dons told Jay Matete something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Milton Keynes Dons lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Milton Keynes Dons scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Collins 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Milton Keynes Dons lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sam Nombe and Milton Keynes Dons agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben Wiles 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Aaron Collins 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Harrogate Town were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Thomas Clark, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
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.
Aaron Collins 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ben Wiles 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.
5 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.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Milton Keynes Dons lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Aaron Collins was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ben Wiles 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Clark after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutJavi García dropped after a run of poor form
Ryan Wintle and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Aaron Collins 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Thomas Clark was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Milton Keynes Dons dressing room was either.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Barnet.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Milton Keynes Dons are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Collins 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.
Marvin Ekpiteta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mathieu Jacquet and Milton Keynes Dons agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Thomas Clark was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Milton Keynes Dons dressing room was either.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Colchester United. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sam Nombe. 1‑0 against Colchester United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Curtis Nelson 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 squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Milton Keynes Dons has to find a result from somewhere.
Ryan Wintle 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Aaron Collins 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Milton Keynes Dons can tell you which week it ends in.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Clark after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutJavi García dropped after a run of poor form
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi García 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Clark after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Grimsby Town? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Curtis Nelson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Milton Keynes Dons will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Clark after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ryan Wintle 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Aaron Collins 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.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Milton Keynes Dons had all but put away. Swindon Town will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Javi García
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Will Dennis
The dugoutJavi García asks for a word with the manager
Stockport County are out and Milton Keynes Dons go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Aaron Collins 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 Javi García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ibrahim Fullah, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$170.0K was the most the club would pay and Rotherham 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.
Marvin Ekpiteta 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 had been thinking. Curtis Nelson 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
That is the business done at Milton Keynes Dons 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Collins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marvin Ekpiteta 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“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.
Milton Keynes Dons have gone to Middlesbrough 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Aaron Collins 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rio Morgan has, at Milton Keynes Dons, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Callum Paterson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Salford City scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
$4.2M on the table at Birmingham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.0M on the table at Portsmouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Mansfield Town wanted more than $830.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Ryan Wintle 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.
Milton Keynes Dons have gone to Mansfield 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.
$510.0K 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Milton Keynes Dons this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Fullah 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simon Matthews 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.
Curtis Nelson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Leicester 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.
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.
Aaron Collins 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Milton Keynes Dons go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamin Henderson 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. Charles Palmer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jack Carter has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nathan Clarke 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ben Wiles
The dugoutAaron Collins knocks on the manager’s door
Aaron Collins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Curtis Nelson 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 squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutAaron Collins knocks on the manager's door