73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 17 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Masato Shigemi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
31 appearances at Jubilo Iwata and the goals have stopped going in. Urawa Reds lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The approach has gone in and the answer belongs to Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Business like this is done quietly and reported loudly, and rarely in that order.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanpe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Matheus Savio has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Takuro Kaneko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Matheus Savio 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 Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayumu Toyoda damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Urawa Reds
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Matheus Savio 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 Nov 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ado Onaiwu 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Gustafson signs something — a contract at Urawa Reds or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Sai Van Wermeskerken may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Ayumu Toyoda damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Loan watch19 Nov 2029
Ryusei Sato’s loan is measured in nothing happening
18 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Jubilo Iwata. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Takuya Ogiwara 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces12 Nov 2029
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Urawa Reds can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ado Onaiwu 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Urawa Reds, and 6 appearances in 41 say he has earned the hearing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sai Van Wermeskerken has his answer from Urawa Reds; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Ayumu Toyoda damages knee ligaments — 131 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bagas Adi Nugroho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Urawa Reds will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Urawa Reds, and both men came out saying it was fine.
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Loan watch22 Oct 2029
Ryusei Sato’s loan is measured in nothing happening
18 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Jubilo Iwata. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Takuya Iwanami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Urawa Reds told Masato Shigemi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 17 on 19 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Ado Onaiwu 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Urawa Reds can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“I watch every Urawa Reds game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nagoya Grampus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad8 Oct 2029
6 new faces, and Urawa Reds 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Urawa Reds is running low.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Urawa Reds will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ryuki Miura's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
In brief
MarketRyota Kamihashi returns from a loan that gave him nothing
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 17 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
90 minutes played. Kokoro Kobayashi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Ventforet Kofu went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Masato Shigemi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
30 appearances at Jubilo Iwata and the goals have stopped going in. Urawa Reds lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ventforet Kofu were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 against Gamba Osaka, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
6 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds 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 Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 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.
40 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Matheus Savio 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.
28 appearances at Jubilo Iwata and the goals have stopped going in. Urawa Reds lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“I watch every Urawa Reds game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nagoya Grampus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matheus Savio 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.
27 appearances at Jubilo Iwata and the goals have stopped going in. Urawa Reds lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ado Onaiwu 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Masato Shigemi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Urawa Reds offered $520.0K; FC Tokyo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yokohama F. Marinos have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Yokohama F. Marinos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Masato Shigemi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
$490.0K on the table at FC Tokyo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
Shonan Bellmare paid $110.0K and Urawa Reds took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Genta Miura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Urawa Reds asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch13 Aug 2029
Ryusei Sato’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Jubilo Iwata. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 18 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
22 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Shonan Bellmare were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Urawa Reds have gone to Gamba Osaka 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.
Urawa Reds have gone to Omiya Ardija 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Genta Miura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio 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 Jul 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matheus Savio 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 Jul 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
19 appearances at Jubilo Iwata and the goals have stopped going in. Urawa Reds lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Urawa Reds can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kimito Nono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Urawa Reds can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Kimito Nono and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
In brief
Loan watchRyusei Sato’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Kimito Nono
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matheus Savio 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 Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 18, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
17 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miki Yamane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Urawa Reds game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nagoya Grampus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Urawa Reds is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Urawa Reds, and 3 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Out, 1‑2 to Yokohama F. Marinos, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Takumi Osako, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kazuhiro Sato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio 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 Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad14 May 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
11 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kimito Nono 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 May 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I watch every Urawa Reds game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Avispa Fukuoka runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Urawa Reds has been clear about where Katsunori Ueebisu stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miki Yamane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Ryoma Watanabe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Toshikazu Teruuchi and Urawa Reds agree another 3 years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7 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.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Miki Yamane has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Matheus Savio 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 Apr 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kazuhiro Sato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Urawa Reds will be judged on one thing only.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ryuki Osa is living that version at Urawa Reds, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kimito Nono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
Urawa Reds asked and St. Louis CITY SC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Urawa Reds, another week without a signature from Kimito Nono.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The bid was some way short and Urawa Reds did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Urawa Reds 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.
Urawa Reds asked and Shonan Bellmare said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aren Inoue is living that version at Urawa Reds, and it tends to show in the first month.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ado Onaiwu 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Albirex Niigata for Ado Onaiwu 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Urawa Reds would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from Jubilo Iwata for Miki Yamane 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.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Salt Lake is saying, and nobody at Urawa Reds is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kimito Nono has agreed terms with Gamba Osaka for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lanús have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Urawa Reds
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him 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 Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
Matheus Savio 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 Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albirex Niigata have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Real Salt Lake have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Kawasaki Frontale for Genta Miura 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.
Kimito Nono and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nagoya Grampus have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Urawa Reds have made the call to Albirex Niigata. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Avispa Fukuoka have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Takuya Ogiwara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Corinthians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Takuro Kaneko 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Takefusa Morita has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miki Nakamura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ado Onaiwu 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.
The phone has started ringing about Jumpei Hayakawa again, and this time the name on the line is Nagoya Grampus. Urawa Reds are listening politely and promising nothing.
Urawa Reds have made the call to Corinthians. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Kashima Antlers have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The offer from Kashima Antlers for Ryusei Sato 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Day 38 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Matheus Savio 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Haruto Suzuki is living that version at Urawa Reds, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
A loan enquiry to Kashiwa Reysol: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Urawa Reds have made the call to Kashiwa Reysol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Urawa Reds know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Urawa Reds has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sai Van Wermeskerken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urawa Reds the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Urawa Reds can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Ado Onaiwu 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.
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 Ayumu Toyoda has written the date down.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Urawa Reds know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Genta Miura has written the date down.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Urawa Reds could ask drops and the wages Sai Van Wermeskerken can ask rise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ryuki Miura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds 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 Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Day 10 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Urawa Reds that is a harder question to answer.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Kimito Nono and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ado Onaiwu 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Urawa Reds is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Katsunori Ueebisu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Matheus Savio 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Taiyo Yamaguchi is living that version at Urawa Reds, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Urawa Reds know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juanpe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Urawa Reds. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ado Onaiwu 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Urawa Reds, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Takuro Kaneko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Urawa Reds can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Matheus Savio's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ryusei Sato trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Urawa Reds is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Takuro Kaneko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Genta Miura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Urawa Reds has been clear about where Tomoya Inukai stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Urawa Reds, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Urawa Reds know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Urawa Reds could ask drops and the wages Sai Van Wermeskerken can ask rise.
1 for Yotaro Nakajima, marked 7.68, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Albirex Niigata were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Kimito Nono 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Takuro Kaneko 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Yotaro Nakajima’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Urawa Reds.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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.” Hidemasa Endo, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
8 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.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Samuel Gustafson.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urawa Reds is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ado Onaiwu 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Urawa Reds, another week without a signature from Kimito Nono.
6 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Takuro Kaneko 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Urawa Reds had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Takuya Ogiwara'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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and Urawa Reds 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.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
0‑3 to Gamba Osaka, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matheus Savio 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Day 41 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kazuki Matsuda has, at Urawa Reds, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hidemasa Endo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Looking aheadUrawa Reds take on the side everybody is chasing
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urawa Reds they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Takuya Ogiwara 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Urawa Reds has been clear about where Sai Van Wermeskerken stands, which is more than many ever get.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hidemasa Endo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Urawa Reds dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Thiago Santana
Kimito Nono 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
Urawa Reds asked and Eibar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Urawa Reds will try again when the window opens; Albirex Niigata may not be selling by then.
Marked 6.70 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
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 Hidemasa Endo left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The offer from Kashima Antlers for Ryusei Sato 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 clubs have shaken hands with Albirex Niigata; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Urawa Reds close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Urawa Reds have done the hard part with Avispa Fukuoka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Urawa Reds had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spartak Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The shirt still fits. Tomoya Inukai is back at Urawa Reds, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
In brief
SquadWords at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
7 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.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Hidemasa Endo recited it perfectly.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$480.0K was the most the club would pay and Shonan Bellmare were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuro Kaneko 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.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Urawa Reds have gone to Sanfrecce Hiroshima 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.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima pay $1.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
$1.7M on the table at Ventforet Kofu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.2M on the table at Sagan Tosu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Kenta Nemoto again, and this time the name on the line is Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Urawa Reds are listening politely and promising nothing.
$420.0K on the table at Shonan Bellmare. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Takuro Kaneko 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.
In brief
Player ratingsTakuro Kaneko beats them one at a time
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuro Kaneko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Koji Hasebe has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matheus Savio 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 Jul 2028
Takuro Kaneko 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.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Urawa Reds lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Matheus Savio 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Urawa Reds, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Koji Hasebe was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Urawa Reds dressing room was either.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Urawa Reds can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ado Onaiwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ado Onaiwu. 2‑1 against Albirex Niigata, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuya Ogiwara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Urawa Reds has been clear about where Genta Miura stands, which is more than many ever get.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matheus Savio 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 Takuya Ogiwara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urawa Reds lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Out, 0‑3 to Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
Kimito Nono 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 words a physio says slowly. 104 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Urawa Reds has been clear about where Keita Suzuki stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kimito Nono 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urawa Reds have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kimito Nono 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.
The mood at Urawa Reds has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
Nobody left the Urawa Reds dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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 0‑3 Koji Hasebe left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Vegalta Sendai will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Urawa Reds were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Urawa Reds can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
19 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kimito Nono 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.
18 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Matheus Savio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuya Ogiwara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 17 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Urawa Reds will try not to make too much of it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
17 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urawa Reds will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Takumi Osako, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
Matheus Savio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urawa Reds this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kimito Nono was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jubilo Iwata left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Matheus Savio'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.
11 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Urawa Reds will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Matheus Savio 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 147 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urawa Reds can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Urawa Reds heard it as anything else.
Matheus Savio 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Urawa Reds will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Urawa Reds will try again when the window opens; Gamba Osaka may not be selling by then.
13 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Urawa Reds can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Urawa Reds 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.
$560.0K on the table at Gamba Osaka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Urawa Reds had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ken Krolicki has agreed terms with Nagoya Grampus for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Albirex Niigata moved on, Ken Krolicki reports back to Urawa Reds, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Urawa Reds interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Koji Hasebe keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“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 Urawa Reds, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Estudiantes is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ken Krolicki again, and this time the name on the line is Albirex Niigata. Urawa Reds are listening politely and promising nothing.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Urawa Reds will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Flamengo is saying, and nobody at Urawa Reds is enjoying the guessing.
Shonan Bellmare paid $1.1M and Urawa Reds took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Matheus Savio 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.
$58.0K was the most the club would pay and Kashiwa Reysol were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takuya Ogiwara 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Urawa Reds have lost him in all but the paperwork.
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Matheus Savio 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Urawa Reds training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kimito Nono 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Urawa Reds will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tatsuki Nara is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The chase for Juanpe ended with $1.1M changing hands and Gamba Osaka out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Takuya Ogiwara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Urawa Reds go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Urawa Reds have made the call to Charleroi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Urawa Reds have made the call to Flamengo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Urawa Reds will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.