“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dane De Vries had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Team Wellington have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Team Wellington and Waitakere United have settled on $31.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Canterbury United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ishah Abubakar 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 Abdul Wahid Binate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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 Ben Boxall is on it.
The captaincy has been taken off Ishah Abubakar. Team Wellington will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
In brief
The dugoutIshah Abubakar asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Team Wellington can pretend not to have heard.
Ishah Abubakar 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 had been thinking. Abdul Wahid Binate 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Team Wellington they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdul Wahid Binate 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.” Monty Van Hattum and Team Wellington agree another 3 years.
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 Ben Boxall is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Monty Van Hattum trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Team Wellington, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Waitakere United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Team Wellington asked and Southern 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dane De Vries and Team Wellington agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Team Wellington 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.
Team Wellington have made the call to Waitakere United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Team Wellington 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Team Wellington lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Team Wellington people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Southern United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Team Wellington can pretend not to have heard.
Ben Boxall 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.
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. 13 actions, 6.85, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ishah Abubakar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Team Wellington lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
A brace, and Ben Boxall takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ben Boxall provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Team Wellington, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Auckland City have kept their man, and Team Wellington go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Team Wellington lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Team Wellington 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Team Wellington would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes James Sutton a promise
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tim Nelson commits to Team Wellington for another 3 years.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Team Wellington know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Team Wellington lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ishah Abubakar 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Marked 8.22 — 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 easiest signature of my career.” Nenad Rajkovic and Team Wellington agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.