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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$210.0K settles it between the clubs for Matt Cacace
Southern United have accepted the money. What WaiBOP United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
At 22 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.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
78 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.
Position 7 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Oliver Van Hattum 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Boxall 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.
Callum Fenton 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 Oct 2026
Callum Fenton has improved at 31, 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.
1‑3 to Canterbury United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Monty Just 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason WaiBOP United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
At 21 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.
Callum Fenton 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 Owen Boxall was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Monty Just was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Clayton Stamatelopoulos and WaiBOP United agree another 3 years.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at WaiBOP United has been clear about where Marco Boxall stands, which is more than many ever get.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee WaiBOP United could ask drops and the wages Kosta Barbarouses can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Monty Just