The deal that would have taken Tomoki Hayakawa to Monaco has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kashima Antlers with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Aleksandar Cavric 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 had been thinking. Kimito Nono 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kashima Antlers, another week without a signature from Shu Morooka.
The deal that would have taken Kyosuke Tagawa to Urawa Reds has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kashima Antlers with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ikuma Sekigawa 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Bicoro is living that version at Kashima Antlers, and it tends to show in the first month.
Naomichi Ueda 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.
Shonan Bellmare paid $530.0K and Kashima Antlers took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leo Ceara. 2‑0 against Omiya Ardija, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ikuma Sekigawa 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Yuma Suzuki's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Shu Morooka is living that version at Kashima Antlers, and it tends to show in the first month.
Naomichi Ueda 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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shu Morooka 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 is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Ian Vera is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
6 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Leo Ceara
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Yuma Suzuki takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yuma Suzuki provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kashima Antlers heard it as anything else.
24 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Cavric 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 2‑0 win over Shonan Bellmare, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.