76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadRyo Shiohama falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
Jo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenta Nishizawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
SquadMakito Uehara has become a man the manager trusts
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Yasuki Kimoto 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.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryo Shiohama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Kyosuke Kamiyama 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.
In brief
Boardroom93% of the income goes out in wages at Sagan Tosu
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
Kenta Nishizawa 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yasuki Kimoto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sagan Tosu told Kenta Nishizawa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sagan Tosu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ryo Shiohama 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Jun Nishikawa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sagan Tosu may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenta Nishizawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Vykintas Slivka 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 8.55 — 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 130% of everything Sagan Tosu earn
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yasuki Kimoto 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.
Kenta Nishizawa 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryo Shiohama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jun Nishikawa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sagan Tosu, another week without a signature from Yuta Imazu.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sagan Tosu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenta Nishizawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ryo Shiohama 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenta Nishizawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Vykintas Slivka 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrija Novaković. 1‑0 against Shonan Bellmare, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Yasuki Kimoto 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michael Quarcoo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Jubilo Iwata held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Sagan Tosu answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Yoshiki Narahara was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
Gamba Osaka paid $1.1M and Sagan Tosu took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sagan Tosu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ryo Shiohama 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.
1‑4 against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kenta Nishizawa and Sagan Tosu agree another 4 years.
Jo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Sagan Tosu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenta Nishizawa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.