Marked for Kosta De Vries
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
Sam Sutton 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alberto Delgado 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
At 23 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jordan Vale 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.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ryan Tuiloma and WaiBOP United agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Canterbury United 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.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Southern United next, and one man in the WaiBOP United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Nov 2026
Team Wellington ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Reece Henderson out for 52 days
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.
Match18 Nov 2026
5 matches without a win for WaiBOP United
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around WaiBOP United are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Liberato Sutton and WaiBOP United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Both jobs done by James Waine — 6.60
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Michael Colvey 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Kosta De Vries
“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.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every WaiBOP United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Team Wellington runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Reece Henderson out for 108 days
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Chris Colvey 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tommy Cacace is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Auckland City is saying, and nobody at WaiBOP United is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chris Colvey and WaiBOP United agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
James Waine 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Auckland City have kept their man, and WaiBOP United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Colvey 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Alfie Rogers is in the works
WaiBOP United have made the call to Auckland City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommy Payne, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
James Waine knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Waine trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.