It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wrexham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Wrexham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Callum Doyle 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.
19 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zak Vyner, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Wrexham are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Josh Windass was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Callum Maycock has just signed for Wrexham, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Adam Forshaw 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Reading moved on, Dan Scarr reports back to Wrexham, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Wrexham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Callum Doyle 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.
Max Cleworth 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Callum Doyle signs something — a contract at Wrexham or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Wrexham spent the window trying to move Elliot Lee on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wrexham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Wrexham now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Callum Doyle 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 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.
Add another name to the list: Reading have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dan Scarr. The answer from Wrexham has not changed — yet.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Liberato Cacace 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Davis Keillor-Dunn. 1‑0 against Stoke City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Wrexham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Forshaw 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Wrexham, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wrexham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Notts County pay $340.0K, 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Callum Doyle 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. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Josh Windass was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Wrexham have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
SquadAdam Forshaw dropped after a run of poor form
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Wrexham scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The offer from Arouca for Bailey Cadamarteri 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.
7.84, 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.
Nathan Broadhead 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Wrexham training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Callum Doyle 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.
Adam Forshaw is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Nathan Broadhead 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.
Jack Spencer is 16, and Wrexham have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wrexham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Callum Doyle 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Wrexham has been clear about where Modou Faal stands, which is more than many ever get.