The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Takumi Tsuchiya 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. 141 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.
Kotatsu Kumakura 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sho Araki 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 words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Position 18 and 6 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.
Sho Araki was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadWords at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ventforet Kofu 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 Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
“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 Ventforet Kofu, and it is not being withdrawn.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadJulio Buffarini falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Sho Araki was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadWords at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadSho Araki falls out with a teammate over standards
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ventforet Kofu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Ventforet Kofu, and it is not being withdrawn.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sho Araki 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.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kohei Kawata 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.
“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 Ventforet Kofu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sho Araki 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.
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kotatsu Kumakura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sho Araki 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
146 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Takumi Tsuchiya 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sho Araki 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 needed Michele Staccioli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Vissel Kobe, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
153 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kotatsu Kumakura 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 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lee Min Ki knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
160 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sho Araki 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
167 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventforet Kofu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuta Koide 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.
Out, 2‑3 to Shonan Bellmare, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
0-4, 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.
Sho Araki 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.
Sho Araki 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.
Jubilo Iwata left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Keita Suzuki 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ventforet Kofu, another week without a signature from Matías Ballini.
Jonathan Zacaría is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Matías Ballini arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ventforet Kofu can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventforet Kofu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kotatsu Kumakura has his answer from Ventforet Kofu; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ventforet Kofu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuta Koide 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Michele Staccioli’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.