Taichi Kikuchi

Defensive Midfielder - Nagoya Grampus
1 Mar 2027
Monday
Process

Marked for Taichi Kikuchi

7 Edition

The Nagoya Grampus Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Ryuji Izumi 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.

Match

Kensuke Nagai sends Nagoya Grampus past Urawa Reds

It finished 1‑0, and it was Kensuke Nagai’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nagoya Grampus.

Player ratings

Taichi Kikuchi runs at them all day

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 ratings

Kensuke Nagai stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Nagoya Grampus support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Takumi Inoue: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

Looking ahead

Kensuke Nagai faces his old club

Avispa Fukuoka next, and one man in the Nagoya Grampus dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Squad

Yuya Yamagishi has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Nagoya Grampus that is a harder question to answer.

The dugout

No place in the plan for Yuya Asano

The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

Market

Yudai Kimura linked with a move away

The name of Yudai Kimura keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nagoya Grampus say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

Back issues
3 Edition

The Nagoya Grampus Sentinel

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Yuya Yamagishi out for 36 days

36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nagoya Grampus lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Nagoya Grampus turn down Arouca for Mateus Castro

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Kensuke Nagai scores twice — 8.81

Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Transfer targets

Nagoya Grampus make their move for Karim Konaté

$7.8M on the table at Red Bull Salzburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

Nagoya Grampus bid $3.4M for Fedor Lapoukhov

The offer went to CSKA Sofia 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.

Transfer targets

Nagoya Grampus rebuffed over Yuma Suzuki

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kashima Antlers have kept their man, and Nagoya Grampus go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Oumar Diakité rejects the move

Nagoya Grampus had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stade de Reims, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Nagoya Grampus

Sho Inagaki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

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.

In brief