The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 19 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WaiBOP United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Michael Wood 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; WaiBOP United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Waitakere United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 18 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for WaiBOP United is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jai Waine 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.
Position 7, 2 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
16 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what WaiBOP United can pretend not to have heard.
Hassan El Hattab 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Michael Wood 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.
15 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.
15 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at WaiBOP United can tell you which week it ends in.
Out, 0‑2 to Team Wellington, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows 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 WaiBOP United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Jai Waine 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.
“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 dugout22 Nov 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 Kosta Sutton to a room that had heard them before.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” WaiBOP United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Hassan El Hattab and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Michael Wood 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at WaiBOP United would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
In brief
BoardroomThe WaiBOP United production line keeps running
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 13 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Hassan El Hattab 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 Cameron Sutton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Soage, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Nov 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 Kosta Sutton left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 12 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Joe Lockyer 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Michael Wood 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at WaiBOP United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. WaiBOP United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at WaiBOP United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. WaiBOP United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 WaiBOP United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Álex Soage has just signed for WaiBOP United, and for once the answer mattered.
Something was said to Jai Waine and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Michael Wood exposed