Marked for Sam Van Hattum
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Sep 2029
“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.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
No sign of nerves from Cauan Baptistella at 21 — 7.84
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cauan Baptistella did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Zadar
Martin Georgiev 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zadar and Lokomotiva Zagreb in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Mislav Kovac 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
10 new faces, and Zadar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market17 Sep 2029
Experience through the door at Zadar
Sam Van Hattum arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Mar 2029
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Owen Boxall 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$988.7K taken back off the WaiBOP United table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ratu Saimoni Nabogi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 38 with 7 appearances behind him, and WaiBOP United have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” WaiBOP United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Sam 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Chris Lockyer 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Feb 2029
Only the photograph left for Sam Van Hattum
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sam Van Hattum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WaiBOP United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” WaiBOP United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
Market12 Feb 2029
The market said no: Sam Van Hattum stays put
WaiBOP United opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Sam Van Hattum stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Market12 Feb 2029
Kosta Rufer runs his contract down
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs WaiBOP United money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2029
Position 7, 2 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match31 Jan 2029
9 matches without a win for WaiBOP United
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around WaiBOP United are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Feb 2029
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Bill Bell has until the next board meeting
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.
Match31 Jan 2029
Out, 0‑7 to Auckland City, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The terraces5 Feb 2029
It finished 0-7. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marco Lockyer and WaiBOP United agree another 2 years.
Match31 Jan 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between WaiBOP United and Auckland City, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces29 Jan 2029
Anger at WaiBOP United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the WaiBOP United boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Market29 Jan 2029
Southern United are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. WaiBOP United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Lockyer 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jan 2029
0‑6 against Team Wellington, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match20 Jan 2029
8 matches without a win for WaiBOP United
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around WaiBOP United are no longer polite ones.
Market22 Jan 2029
Mufti Rahim hands in a written request
“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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Owen Boxall 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.
Match20 Jan 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about WaiBOP United and Team Wellington in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Beaten 6 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Mufti Rahim
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Jan 2029
The bid was some way short and WaiBOP United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match13 Jan 2029
7 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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Owen Boxall in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Lockyer 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Southern United left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Jan 2029
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. WaiBOP United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Owen Boxall 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 Jan 2029
Chris Lockyer 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Alex Cacace named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alex Cacace is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Marco Bell has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at WaiBOP United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market8 Jan 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Jan 2029
Anger at WaiBOP United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 1‑5 beating by Auckland City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at WaiBOP United
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match30 Dec 2028
No end in sight to WaiBOP United's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at WaiBOP United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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 WaiBOP United have had the benefit of it.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Owen Boxall, 33, rolls back the years — 7.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between WaiBOP United and Auckland City, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Sam Van Hattum
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sam Van Hattum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WaiBOP United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Dec 2028
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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” WaiBOP United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match23 Dec 2028
3 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Chris Lockyer 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oliver De Vries commits to WaiBOP United for another 4 years.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Francis Barbarouses 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Point won or two lost for WaiBOP United?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Waitakere United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to WaiBOP United's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at WaiBOP United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Lockyer 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Mufti Rahim 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Dec 2028
Anger at WaiBOP United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match2 Dec 2028
3‑10 to Team Wellington, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Bill Bell has until the next board meeting
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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The WaiBOP United board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Noah Boxall takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Boxall provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Alex Cacace, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.73
A mark of 8.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marco Lockyer and WaiBOP United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match2 Dec 2028
13 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about WaiBOP United and Team Wellington in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Nobody could get near Alex Reid
Successful dribbles: 55. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at WaiBOP United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Muhammad Hussain 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Chris Lockyer 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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Southern United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Marco Bell has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at WaiBOP United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Nov 2028
Waitakere United are out and WaiBOP United go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
A debut Alex Cacace will not forget — 7.73
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.73 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
The terraces20 Nov 2028
The crowd has taken to Alex Cacace
At 19 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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
The afternoon belonged to Marco Bell
7.96, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. WaiBOP United had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match11 Nov 2028
A 0‑5 beating by Auckland City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match13 Nov 2028
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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.
Match11 Nov 2028
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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Sam 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Muhammad Hussain has improved at 26, 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Chris Lockyer 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.