Kashiwa Reysol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Tokyo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from Urawa Reds for Ryosuke Kojima 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.
Kashiwa Reysol offered $4.8M; Urawa Reds said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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 Masato Shigemi enough to be asked twice.
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.
Gamba Osaka paid $560.0K and Kashiwa Reysol took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadWords at Kashiwa Reysol training over how hard people work
The offer went to FC Tokyo 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.
Kashiwa Reysol offered $1.9M; Avispa Fukuoka said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Kashiwa Reysol have gone to Vegalta Sendai with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.74, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Genki Haraguchi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kashiwa Reysol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
33 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.
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 Jun 2028
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.
Minute 89, against Omiya Ardija, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Half the programme played, position 13, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
40 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.
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Genki Haraguchi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tojiro Kubo signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Omiya Ardija 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.
54 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.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jubilo Iwata were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
78 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yudai Konishi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 May 2028
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can tell you which week it ends in.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Kashiwa Reysol is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
86 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.
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.
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.
“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 dugout8 May 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Genki Haraguchi to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Kenshin Yuba is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Kashiwa Reysol where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Albirex Niigata until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Genki Haraguchi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
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.
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.
Masaki Watai scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sagan Tosu, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Hayato Tanaka 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Genki Haraguchi after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
108 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yudai Konishi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashiwa Reysol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kashiwa Reysol know it.
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.
124 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Kashima Antlers spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Koya Yuruki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
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.
Nobuteru Nakagawa 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kashima Antlers in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kashiwa Reysol would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Next up on the road: Kashima Antlers, position 12. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
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.
This is not rotation. Yudai Konishi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
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.
A mark of 7.68, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Genki Haraguchi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tomoaki Okubo has his answer from Kashiwa Reysol; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kashiwa Reysol have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Alianza Atletico said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miki Minamino has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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.
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.
This is not rotation. Yudai Konishi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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 Deportes Limache said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kashiwa Reysol told Koki Kumasaka something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cerro Porteno have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A loan enquiry to Adelaide United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
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 Nobuteru Nakagawa has written the date down.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kashiwa Reysol people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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.
The phone has started ringing about Seiya Baba again, and this time the name on the line is Ventforet Kofu. Kashiwa Reysol are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Deportes Limache have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
The name of Kenshin Yuba has come up in conversations Kashiwa Reysol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kashiwa Reysol has been clear about where Masaki Watai stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Kashiwa Reysol have made the call to Vissel Kobe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Borussia Mönchengladbach: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“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.
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.
31 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Keita Endo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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.
This is not rotation. Yudai Konishi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Dec 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 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.
Squad13 Dec 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.
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.
Takuya Shimamura 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.
This is not rotation. Yudai Konishi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Nov 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.
Taisei Inoue 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.
Something was said to Lazar Romanic and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nobuteru Nakagawa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Position 10, 45 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Tomoaki Okubo’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
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.
Squad8 Nov 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.
Something was said to Tojiro Kubo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
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.
Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Kashiwa Reysol that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 45 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Kashiwa Reysol and a proper look at me.” He remains FC Tokyo’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
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.
Squad18 Oct 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can tell you which week it ends in.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 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.
Takuya Shimamura 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.
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.
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 Shonan Bellmare in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Kashiwa Reysol that is a harder question to answer.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Koya Yuruki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Genki Haraguchi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kashiwa Reysol has been clear about where Kenta Matsumoto stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad20 Sep 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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.
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.
Squad6 Sep 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.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Sanfrecce Hiroshima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Álvaro Guevara has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yudai Konishi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Yokohama F. Marinos 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Kashiwa Reysol will try again when the window opens; Urawa Reds may not be selling by then.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wanderers have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A mark of 7.50, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout30 Aug 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.” Genki Haraguchi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Kashiwa Reysol and Urawa Reds have settled on $6.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
3‑0, and Lazar Romanic took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kashiwa Reysol tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Lazar Romanic takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lazar Romanic provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
This is not rotation. Koki Kumasaka has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Kashiwa Reysol close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kawasaki Frontale were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“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.
The offer from Avispa Fukuoka for Seiya Baba 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.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Kashiwa Reysol have made the call to Alianza Atletico. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lazar Romanic and Kashiwa Reysol agree another 4 years.
Add another name to the list: Avispa Fukuoka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Seiya Baba. The answer from Kashiwa Reysol has not changed — yet.
“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.
The clubs have shaken hands with FC Tokyo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with Yokohama F. Marinos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad19 Jul 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can tell you which week it ends in.
7.39, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Kashiwa Reysol had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Genki Haraguchi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nagoya Grampus? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Marked 5.07. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
The dugoutYudai Konishi knocks on the manager’s door
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.
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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Genki Haraguchi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
Nagoya Grampus 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.
Yusuke Segawa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Kashiwa Reysol and a proper look at me.” He remains Yokohama F. Marinos’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Something was said to Lazar Romanic and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“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.
7.54, 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.
Squad28 Jun 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: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Koya Yuruki 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.
“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.
“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. Taiyo Koga was one of the reasons people came, and $16.0M does not replace that by itself.
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.
Squad14 Jun 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 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.
Koya Yuruki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Genki Haraguchi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yudai Konishi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ryosuke Kojima signs something — a contract at Kashiwa Reysol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over Avispa Fukuoka, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Genki Haraguchi could afford to be generous.
The dugout24 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Yuto Yamada
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Kashiwa Reysol have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
The dugoutYuto Yamada asks for a word with the manager
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.
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 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Genki Haraguchi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sanfrecce Hiroshima defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Taiyo Koga decided nobody was going anywhere. Albirex Niigata had no time left to answer.
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.
Squad3 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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.” 4 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Genki Haraguchi could afford to be generous.
The dugout3 May 2027
Yuto Yamada 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.
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 dugout26 Apr 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Genki Haraguchi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nobuteru Nakagawa scored, was marked 7.26, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sagan Tosu were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Genki Haraguchi kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad12 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kashiwa Reysol told Yoshio Koizumi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
“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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Genki Haraguchi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad22 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.
Marked 7.42. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Genki Haraguchi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Genki Haraguchi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cerro Largo is saying, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol is enjoying the guessing.
“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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Tojiro Kubo 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.
“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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Kashiwa Reysol close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal that would have taken Tomoaki Okubo 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.
The deal with Cerro Largo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Vissel Kobe left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kashiwa Reysol have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Yota Komi was one of the reasons people came, and $2.8M 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.
1 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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Sanfrecce Hiroshima have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yota Komi. The answer from Kashiwa Reysol has not changed — yet.
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.
Vegalta Sendai pay $600.0K, 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.
Kengo Nagai has left for Sagan Tosu in a $100.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Yudai Konishi'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.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol heard it as anything else.
Yusuke Segawa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 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.
“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 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.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Kenshin Yuba has moved up it.
The name of Yota Komi has come up in conversations Kashiwa Reysol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Squad18 Jan 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.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ryosuke Kojima has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
PSV arrived with $25.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Mao Hosoya has gone, the accounts have $25.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Koya Yuruki 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kashima Antlers have kept their man, and Kashiwa Reysol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Position 2, 24 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.
“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
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Masaki Watai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Kashiwa Reysol hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad21 Dec 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.
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Yudai Konishi 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.
“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.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Kashiwa Reysol have had the benefit of 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.
Squad7 Dec 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.
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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nobuteru Nakagawa 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.
Something was said to Wataru Harada and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Squad9 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Kashiwa Reysol that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Masaki Watai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
FC Tokyo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
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.
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.
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.
Omiya Ardija 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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 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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Tokyo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yusuke Segawa’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.
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.
“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.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mao Hosoya. 1‑0 against Jubilo Iwata, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Genki Haraguchi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Yota Komi
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Keita Endo
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Koya Yuruki
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
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.
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Yudai Konishi 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.
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Genki Haraguchi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kashiwa Reysol heard it as anything else.
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.
“I did not go to Sanfrecce Hiroshima to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kashiwa Reysol and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
A mark of 7.39, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Wataru Harada
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Genki Haraguchi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room was either.