Marked for Nickel Ravai
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2041
Hayden McGrath damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Boardroom18 Feb 2041
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rewa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Feb 2041
Nickel Ravai 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 Rewa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Tempers go at Rewa
Ben Mewett 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.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Words at Rewa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabricio 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Feb 2041
Hayden McGrath damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Match11 Feb 2041
Rewa up to position 1
40 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad11 Feb 2041
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Feb 2041
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rewa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Feb 2041
Ben Mewett 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 Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2041
A move Liberato Waine would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Liberato Waine is living that version at Rewa, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Dec 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rewa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Dec 2040
Alex McCowatt: 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.” Rewa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market31 Dec 2040
Nickel Ravai 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 Rewa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Dec 2040
Ben Mewett 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 Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2040
Fabricio 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.
Boardroom31 Dec 2040
The Rewa debt reaches $10.4M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom3 Dec 2040
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.
Market3 Dec 2040
Only the photograph left for Stefan Grant
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefan Grant will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rewa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Dec 2040
“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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2040
$264.6K of the owner's money at Rewa
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Dec 2040
Fabricio 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.
Squad3 Dec 2040
Joe Smith 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 Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Dec 2040
The Rewa debt reaches $10.4M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad3 Dec 2040
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gaston Valverde, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Dec 2040
Richard Nkomo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rewa 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.
In brief
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Market
Still no signature from Pedro Manoel
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Boardroom
$41.0K a year onto the Rewa books
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alipate Prasad has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Nov 2040
Stefan Grant has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rewa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market5 Nov 2040
“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 Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Nov 2040
“The easiest signature of my career.” Richard Nkomo and Rewa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Nov 2040
Ben Mewett 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 Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
$307.8K of the owner's money at Rewa
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad5 Nov 2040
Fabricio 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
The Rewa debt reaches $10.5M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad5 Nov 2040
Joe Smith gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Oct 2040
A fracture rules Alex McCowatt out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rewa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Oct 2040
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rewa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Oct 2040
“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 Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Oct 2040
$318.4K of the owner's money at Rewa
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad8 Oct 2040
Fabricio 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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2040
The Rewa debt reaches $10.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.