Tim Rufer

Striker - Waitakere United
12 Aug 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Tim Rufer

40 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Waitakere United put Callum Bell on notice

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.

Market

Francis Just 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 Waitakere United can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Waitakere United

Tommy Payne 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.

Squad

Brahim Sabaouni 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.

Squad

Tim Rufer signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tim Rufer commits to Waitakere United for another 3 years.

Squad

Marco Nelson asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

Back issues
29 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Monty Barbarouses: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Waitakere United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Brahim Sabaouni 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 Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

No hiding place for Tim Rufer

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tim Rufer, and the manager let it.

In brief

28 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Waitakere United spell it out for Callum Bell

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Callum Bell has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Squad

Tim Rufer says Waitakere United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Tommy Payne 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 Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Marco Nelson signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marco Nelson and Waitakere United agree another 4 years.

Squad

Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Sabaouni 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.

Boardroom

Waitakere United pull $817.1K back off the table

The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.

In brief