Yudai Kimura and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Nagoya Grampus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryuji Izumi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nagoya Grampus has been clear about where Gen Kato stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Akinari Kawazura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 16 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.
Sho Inagaki 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Nagoya Grampus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryuji Izumi 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ryuji Izumi signs something — a contract at Nagoya Grampus or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nagoya Grampus. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mateus Castro has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Yudai Kimura 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 Nov 2027
Words at Nagoya Grampus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryuji Izumi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nagoya Grampus has been clear about where Mateus Castro stands, which is more than many ever get.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nagoya Grampus, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ryuji Izumi signs something — a contract at Nagoya Grampus or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Shungo Sugiura is on it.
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 words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Boca Juniors go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Argentinos Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Nacional have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joaquín Gho. The answer from Argentinos Juniors has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán López Muñoz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Argentinos Juniors has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Argentinos Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín Rey and Argentinos Juniors agree another 5 years.
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 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.