The clubs have shaken hands with Deportivo Pasto; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Melbourne City for Kane Vincent-Young 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.
Brisbane Roar asked and Central Coast Mariners said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Sam Sutton 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 Brisbane Roar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Brisbane Roar told Joel King something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
In brief
The dugoutSam Sutton has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Brisbane Roar will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $20.0K — a club that wants Tyler Williams enough to be asked twice.
Brisbane Roar have gone to Wellington Phoenix 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 went to Sydney FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sam Sutton 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 Brisbane Roar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Wellington Phoenix kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Brisbane Roar will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hosine Bility and Brisbane Roar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
This is not rotation. Emin Duraković has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Brisbane Roar is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Carlo Armiento was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dean Bouzanis will call it something else in private.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Dean Bouzanis
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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Huddersfield Town is saying, and nobody at Brisbane Roar is enjoying the guessing.
Sam Sutton 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. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Brisbane Roar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Axel Kayombo takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Axel Kayombo provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Melbourne Victory had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Brisbane Roar did not stop to explain themselves.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brisbane Roar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 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.
Something was said to Joel King and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brisbane Roar have made the call to Melbourne Victory. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Brisbane Roar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Joel King scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1‑3 to Wellington Phoenix, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Sutton 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.
Youstin Salas 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Keanu Gallagher left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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 Carlo Armiento is on it.
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.
Ricardo Britos 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 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.
“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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matala Makhubo 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sydney FC? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Sutton 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.
Hosine Bility 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Axel Kayombo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sydney FC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Brisbane Roar would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Brisbane Roar, another week without a signature from Joe Gibbard.
“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 Brisbane Roar know it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Sutton is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Dean Bouzanis
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Brisbane Roar told Sebit Ngor something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Brisbane Roar 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sam Sutton 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.
Brisbane Roar asked and Sheffield Wednesday said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Brisbane Roar, another week without a signature from Joel King.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Brisbane Roar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Brisbane Roar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sheffield Wednesday is saying, and nobody at Brisbane Roar is enjoying the guessing.
Ricardo Britos 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 Brisbane Roar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brisbane Roar asked and Luton 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.
Brisbane Roar have made the call to Sheffield Wednesday. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kane Vincent-Young and Brisbane Roar agree another 3 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Sutton 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.
Joey Garuccio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Brisbane Roar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Sam Sutton 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 Brisbane Roar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Brisbane Roar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sam Sutton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Kane Vincent-Young will call it something else in private.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Keanu Gallagher after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Brisbane Roar has been clear about where Nathan Amanatidis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Sebit Ngor 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Joel King’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Brisbane Roar needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Brisbane Roar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Sebit Ngor 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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jay O'Shea
SquadJay O'Shea is training like a man with a point to make