“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 City can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Auckland City had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
7.28, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Add another name to the list: Southern United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jordan Vale. The answer from Auckland City has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Auckland City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Auckland City and Southern United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
Boardroom3 academy players handed senior numbers at Auckland City
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Auckland City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Auckland City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mariano Barreda 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.