Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
David Terans 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kashiwa Reysol would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kashiwa Reysol, another week without a signature from Kohei Tezuka.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kashiwa Reysol. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Kengo Nagai
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Omiya Ardija leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Yuto Yamada
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Kento Doan chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yotaro Nakajima is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Makoto Mitsuta 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wataru Harada trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kashiwa Reysol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Taiyo Koga scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kashiwa Reysol and Shonan Bellmare, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Terans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Koya Yuruki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
David Terans was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kento Doan after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kashiwa Reysol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kashiwa Reysol can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Shonan Bellmare in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kashiwa Reysol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and David Terans takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Terans provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Kento Doan, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Yudai Konishi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Terans 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.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kento Doan kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Terans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I did not go to Avispa Fukuoka to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kashiwa Reysol and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Kento Doan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kashiwa Reysol can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Koki Kumasaka 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Kento Doan chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kashiwa Reysol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Shonan Bellmare moved on, Shun Nakajima reports back to Kashiwa Reysol, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Terans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Kashiwa Reysol are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Yokohama F. Marinos next, and one man in the Kashiwa Reysol dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kashiwa Reysol, another week without a signature from Kohei Tezuka.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hayato Nakama has written the date down.
$13.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Leicester City, the club has $13.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The deal that would have taken Shumpei Naruse to Vegalta Sendai has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kashiwa Reysol with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Wataru Harada 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kento Doan kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Hayato Tanaka is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kashiwa Reysol have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Kashiwa Reysol until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Urawa Reds for Shumpei Naruse was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Gamba Osaka moved on, Tomoya Inukai reports back to Kashiwa Reysol, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from FC Tokyo for Tomoya Inukai was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kashiwa Reysol have done the hard part with Kashima Antlers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.48, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koki Kumasaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Jubilo Iwata for Mao Hosoya was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Kashiwa Reysol asked and Yokohama F. Marinos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.3M on the table at Yokohama F. Marinos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Kashiwa Reysol have paid $800.0K for David Terans, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer went to FC Tokyo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Kashiwa Reysol hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Kashiwa Reysol offered $1.2M; Kawasaki Frontale said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kashiwa Reysol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Yotaro Nakajima from Sanfrecce Hiroshima for $1.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
15 seasons and 278 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The offer from Changchun Yatai for Hayato Tanaka was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$1.2M on the table at Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kashiwa Reysol have gone to Kawasaki Frontale with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
$800.0K on the table at Fluminense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Yusuke Segawa 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.83, and not one of them will make a highlights package.