Marked for Isimeli Gavidi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lautoka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sairusi Nalaubu
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A fracture rules Rendi Saepul out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lautoka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Mar 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Mar 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christopher Tuinakauvadra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lautoka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abhishek Deo, and the manager let it.
Match9 Mar 2030
Point won or two lost for Lautoka?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nasinu? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market11 Mar 2030
The clock runs on Sam Payne's contract
8 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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lautoka, another week without a signature from Aporosa Ravai.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lautoka
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match11 Feb 2030
Lautoka are in real trouble now
Position 9, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Rendi Saepul breaks a bone — 65 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Feb 2030
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lautoka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces4 Feb 2030
Anger at Lautoka spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Rendi Saepul breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lautoka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sitiveni Cavuilagi and Lautoka agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The owner puts $59.6K into Lautoka
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Lautoka cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Market4 Feb 2030
The Aporosa Ravai conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Suva will make the call about Aporosa Ravai this week. Lautoka have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peniasi Rotidara 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Jan 2030
Anger at Lautoka spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Rendi Saepul breaks a bone — 100 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filipe Nailatikau will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lautoka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The owner puts $55.5K into Lautoka
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Lautoka cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Percy Lorch and Lautoka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lautoka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Lautoka cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peniasi Rotidara 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lautoka
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match19 Nov 2029
Lautoka are in real trouble now
Position 9, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market19 Nov 2029
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lautoka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Nov 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Sairusi Nalaubu for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lautoka will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Nov 2029
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Nov 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lautoka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
Lautoka cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Navneel Nand 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Oct 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
Lautoka are $5.6M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peniasi Rotidara 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Ilimotama Jese has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
The name of Sairusi Nalaubu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lautoka say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2029
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Ilimotama Jese, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
Lautoka are $5.6M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Navneel Nand 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Sep 2029
Every point is an argument now for Lautoka
Position 9 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market24 Sep 2029
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lautoka
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Aporosa Ravai
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aporosa Ravai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lautoka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idriss Youssouf 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2029
Rendi Saepul hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Sep 2029
Roy Hughes has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lautoka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Navneel Nand 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isimeli Gavidi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2029
The small margins put Lautoka out
Out, 1‑3 to Ba, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces3 Sep 2029
9th and falling: the mood at Lautoka has gone
15 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
Market3 Sep 2029
“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 Lautoka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Isimeli Gavidi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lautoka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Sep 2029
91 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
The owner puts $36.6K into Lautoka
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Lautoka are $5.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Chris Sutton, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lautoka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for Roy Hughes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roy Hughes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lautoka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Lautoka cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peniasi Rotidara 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.
Match23 Jun 2029
Honours even between Lautoka and Ba
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Jun 2029
Lautoka sink to position 10
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Junior Anand, 33, rolls back the years — 7.81
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
$19.0K of the owner's money at Lautoka
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Match2 Jun 2029
Three points for Lautoka, 1‑0 the final word against Nadroga in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Shivam Naidu gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The Lautoka debt reaches $5.1M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Wages eat 105% of everything Lautoka earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Apr 2029
No end in sight to Lautoka's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lautoka has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces16 Apr 2029
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Match14 Apr 2029
Navua left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rendi Saepul 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
5.45. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Lautoka counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lautoka now.
Market29 Jan 2029
Junior Anand hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.