Shota Fukuoka 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
Riku Handa 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.
“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; Gamba Osaka are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Gamba Osaka, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Gamba Osaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ritsu Doan 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Isiaka Soukouna is living that version at Gamba Osaka, and it tends to show in the first month.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gamba Osaka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
531 appearances across 24 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gamba Osaka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Gamba Osaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asahi Uenaka 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Makoto Mitsuta is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shinnosuke Nakatani signs something — a contract at Gamba Osaka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lebogang Mphela 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 hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Teboho Zwane did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Luke Baartman 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.
5 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 easiest signature of my career.” Luís Eduardo and Ajax Cape Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Luke Baartman
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luke Baartman has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ajax Cape Town have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A season-long audition: Orlando Pirates still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Ajax Cape Town's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
$6.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Themba Williams provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luke Baartman did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is going to Braga, the club has $6.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ajax Cape Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The phone has started ringing about Bongani Zungu again, and this time the name on the line is Kashima Antlers. Ajax Cape Town are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ajax Cape Town can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Teboho Zwane did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Kermit Mokoena 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Teboho Zwane has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mandla Kekana's mistake