Vinal Prasad 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navua know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A new face in his position, and Filipe Baravilala suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Navua have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Add another name to the list: Nadi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samir Hussain. The answer from Navua has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Edward Justin is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Ratu Saimoni Nabogi arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Vinal Prasad 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.
Jovilisi Borisi 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Vinal Prasad has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 The request is on a desk at Navua, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Labasa moved on, Jovilisi Borisi reports back to Navua, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.