Marked for Patrick Mitchell
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2040
Patrick Mitchell damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
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 The request is on a desk at Auckland FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Oct 2040
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jackson Smith and Auckland FC agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Oct 2040
Patrick Mitchell damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Market1 Oct 2040
Only the photograph left for Connor McKay
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Connor McKay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Auckland FC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Jacob Brazete has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Auckland FC 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Sep 2040
Patrick Mitchell damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Squad24 Sep 2040
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad24 Sep 2040
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Sep 2040
Patrick Mitchell damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Match17 Sep 2040
38 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad17 Sep 2040
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lachlan Middleton and Auckland FC agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Sep 2040
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Mitchell
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Auckland FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Sep 2040
Connor McKay 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 Auckland FC can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Adama Coulibaly has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Auckland FC 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Oct 2039
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Jacob Brazete 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.
Match22 Oct 2039
Perth Glory left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market24 Oct 2039
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nicholas Campbell has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market24 Oct 2039
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dean Walsh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Oct 2039
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Mitchell is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Oct 2039
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joel Lee has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad24 Oct 2039
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to George Plusnin, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Oct 2039
A promise the Auckland FC board did not keep
There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.