Yuta Higuchi 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Sho Osako is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Kashima Antlers will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sho Osako has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kashima Antlers have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Koki Machida is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kim Tae Hyeon signs something — a contract at Kashima Antlers or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jubilo Iwata in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kashima Antlers lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kashima Antlers, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not rotation. Akito Mukai has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kashima Antlers is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Yuta Higuchi 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over Kashiwa Reysol, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Keisuke Maeda 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.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kashima Antlers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Cavric 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yuma Suzuki signs something — a contract at Kashima Antlers or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kashima Antlers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Yuta Higuchi 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.
A 2‑0 win over Ventforet Kofu, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Yuta Higuchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Keisuke Maeda 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.
Nobody at Kashima Antlers 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kashima Antlers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Shinji Morita, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashima Antlers can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Kashima Antlers asked and Vegalta Sendai said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Cavric was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Shinji Morita has come up in conversations Kashima Antlers were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A loan enquiry to Nagoya Grampus: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A loan enquiry to Ventforet Kofu: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashima Antlers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutNaomichi Ueda has become a man the manager trusts
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kim Tae Hyeon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kashima Antlers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Kashima Antlers heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Cavric 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.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yuta Higuchi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miki Hasebe on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.