“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Jose Earthquakes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at San Jose Earthquakes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. DeJuan Jones 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at San Jose Earthquakes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Jose Earthquakes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Timo Werner 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
DeJuan Jones 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Jovanović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 7.43 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, San Jose Earthquakes had the best player on the pitch.
The offer from Porto for Luka Jovanović 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Jose Earthquakes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jack Skahan has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Timo Werner 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jack Skahan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Jose Earthquakes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” DeJuan Jones and San Jose Earthquakes agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at San Jose Earthquakes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. DeJuan Jones 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at San Jose Earthquakes, another week without a signature from Angus Gunn.