A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kashiwa Reysol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
Yusuke Segawa 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Nobuteru Nakagawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Koki Kumasaka 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ten Miyagi. 1‑0 against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Takumi Tomiyasu on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 May 2027
Koki Kumasaka 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.
It needed Yusuke Segawa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Yokohama F. Marinos, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
7 clean sheets from 10 appearances at Sanfrecce Hiroshima. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yusuke Segawa signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kashiwa Reysol lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Koya Yuruki 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Koki Kumasaka 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Takumi Tomiyasu after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kashiwa Reysol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Kohei Tezuka damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kashiwa Reysol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Takumi Tomiyasu, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kashiwa Reysol told Nobuteru Nakagawa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Gamba Osaka.
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Seiya Baba'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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gamba Osaka in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Koki Kumasaka on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Kashiwa Reysol and Kashima Antlers.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Takumi Tomiyasu to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Beaten 4 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of 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 Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Nagoya Grampus, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Takumi Tomiyasu, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Kashima Antlers next, and one man in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yusuke Segawa and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Takumi Tomiyasu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal that would have taken Shumpei Naruse to Jubilo Iwata has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kashiwa Reysol with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and FC Tokyo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hayato Tanaka 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 Kashiwa Reysol, another week without a signature from Ten Miyagi.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kashiwa Reysol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Yusei Yamanouchi was one of the reasons people came, and $1.8M does not replace that by itself.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Nagoya Grampus pay $540.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Jubilo Iwata is saying, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Ryo Watanabe ended with $520.0K changing hands and Jubilo Iwata out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nagoya Grampus wanted more than $460.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kenta Matsuyama is living that version at Kashiwa Reysol, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Kashiwa Reysol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Koki Kumasaka 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.
The name of Seiya Baba has come up in conversations Kashiwa Reysol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ten Miyagi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Seiya Baba'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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashiwa Reysol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.
Koya Yuruki 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Urawa Reds have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
Yusuke Segawa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kashiwa Reysol have made the call to Yokohama F. Marinos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Kashiwa Reysol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hayato Tanaka 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Taisei Kuwata has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Koki Kumasaka signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomoaki Okubo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Yoshio Koizumi’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kashiwa Reysol had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
9 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Koya Yuruki 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Seiya Baba is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kashiwa Reysol. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Koya Yuruki 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Hayato Tanaka 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.
“I did not go to Yokohama F. Marinos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kashiwa Reysol and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Koki Kumasaka signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Yota Komi has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Seiya Baba is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nobuteru Nakagawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“I watch every Kashiwa Reysol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Yokohama F. Marinos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Koki Kumasaka
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ten Miyagi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kashiwa Reysol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Yusuke Segawa 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koki Kumasaka 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.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Kashiwa Reysol have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yuto Yamada trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Taiyo Koga’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kashiwa Reysol needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kashiwa Reysol will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Takumi Tomiyasu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sanfrecce Hiroshima in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Koya Yuruki 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yudai Konishi, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Kashiwa Reysol are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ryosuke Kojima is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Koya Yuruki’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kashiwa Reysol needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yoshio Koizumi has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yuto Yamada signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Taiki Watanabe enough to be asked twice.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Tojiro Kubo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.