“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Walter Scott and Team Wellington agree another 2 years.
Willem Ebbinge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Ruon Tongyik 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.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 2‑0 win over Waitakere United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Auckland City next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Monty Nelson is the division's best young player this month
At 20 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. Team Wellington will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ruon Tongyik 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cameron Sutton and Team Wellington agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Walter Scott 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 Ruon Tongyik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Callum Singh after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jake Nelson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Team Wellington needing him to play as if none of it matters.
14 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Willem Ebbinge 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruon Tongyik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Corey Hollman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Oliver Fenton 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 loan enquiry to Southern United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Team Wellington know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Waitakere United is saying, and nobody at Team Wellington is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cameron Sutton and Team Wellington agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oliver Fenton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hawke's Bay 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.
In brief
The dugoutWillem Ebbinge has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Team Wellington will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Willem Ebbinge 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Ruon Tongyik 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cameron Sutton and Team Wellington agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.