“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Southern United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Just and Southern United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hawke's Bay United have kept their man, and Southern United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Southern United who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Teaveura Parker 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 easiest signature of my career.” James Tuiloma and Southern United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Southern United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
In brief
The dugoutTommy Lewis knocks on the manager’s door
Owen 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.
WaiBOP 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Southern United that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Drake Hadeed and Southern United agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Southern United asked and WaiBOP United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Drake Hadeed 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Southern United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kosta Van Hattum is on 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 Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Owen Van Hattum and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hirinai Vahirua and Southern United agree another 3 years.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Southern United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Michael Just has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutWinston Waine asks for a word with the manager
Everybody at Southern United saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Southern United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilisoni Lolaivalu and Southern United agree another 1 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Michael Barbarouses to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Ilisoni Lolaivalu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Michael Barbarouses on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Southern United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canterbury United have kept their man, and Southern United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Michael Just is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Ilisoni Lolaivalu is 32, with 98 appearances behind him, and Southern United will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Owen Van Hattum and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Bell was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Southern United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Tommy Lewis are not good
The name of Jake Nelson has come up in conversations Southern United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Bell 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Southern United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chris Wood signs something — a contract at Southern United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.