The Waitakere United Sentinel
Squad12 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aleksandar Gacinovic
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waitakere United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Aug 2030
Liberato Garbett agrees terms with WaiBOP United
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Waitakere United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Aug 2030
Clayton Smith asks to leave Waitakere United
“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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Waitakere United
Owen Barbarouses 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liberato Garbett 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Deklan Fenton signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Deklan Fenton commits to Waitakere United for another 2 years.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
Oliver Van Hattum gets picked when it counts
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 Oliver Van Hattum is on it.
Market12 Aug 2030
Oliver Barbarouses linked with a move away
The name of Oliver Barbarouses keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Waitakere United say nothing, which says plenty.
Match12 Aug 2030
Continental football is in reach for Waitakere United
15 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
- The dugout Noah Sutton asks for a word with the manager
- Boardroom The Waitakere United production line keeps running
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Matt Cacace