It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lachlan Rose has his answer from Newcastle Jets; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“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 The request is on a desk at Newcastle Jets, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Newcastle Jets will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Zach Clough 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.
The name of Alex Nunes has come up in conversations Newcastle Jets were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newcastle Jets 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 Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newcastle Jets can pretend not to have heard.
Nikos Vergos 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.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alex Nassiep knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Nikos Vergos could not do
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Newcastle Jets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nikos Vergos 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.
1‑2 against Central Coast Mariners, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zach Clough 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newcastle Jets can pretend not to have heard.
Zach Clough 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.97 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Clayton Taylor. 2‑0 against Wellington Phoenix, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Nikos Vergos 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.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
Owen O'Neill is 17, and Newcastle Jets have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Aquilina and Newcastle Jets agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zach Clough 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Xavier Bertoncello and Newcastle Jets agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Zach Clough 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.
A new face in his position, and James Delianov suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Newcastle Jets have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nikos Vergos 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.
Newcastle Jets spent the window trying to move Alex Nunes on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newcastle Jets can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Sydney FC for Oscar Fryer 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Newcastle Jets, another week without a signature from Timothy Zechariah.
Nikos Vergos 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 is 20, and nobody at Newcastle Jets signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Newcastle Jets 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 Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Oscar Fryer again, and this time the name on the line is Sydney FC. Newcastle Jets are listening politely and promising nothing.
Zach Clough 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.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Joe Shaughnessy keeps the shirt for now, at Newcastle Jets's convenience rather than his own.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Ruon Tongyik arrives at Newcastle Jets with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“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 Newcastle Jets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zach Clough 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Newcastle Jets, another week without a signature from Timothy Zechariah.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zach Clough trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joe Shaughnessy and Newcastle Jets agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newcastle Jets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Max Burgess’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.