New player songs

A new season means new songs to learn, so here's your homework. I have to admit I haven't listened to many of them yet.

3. TANIGUCHI Hiroto 

 

Taniguchi izayuke Hiroto
Taniguchi misero yo Hiroto
Taniguchi atsuku tatakae
Toshi moyashite tsukisusume

Original song:
https://youtu.be/ufc54RdoitM?si=SAXsxCZOLMvhlM2n

18. KONNO Kazuya



Konno la la la laa
Kazuya la la la laa
Konno la la la laa
Kazuya la la la laa oh ohh

Original song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H9bBGHkaWQ

20. MOCHIYAMA Kyosuke



Mochiyama Kyosuke
Laa laa laa, laa laa la laa
Tatakae Mochiyama

Original song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuqDHYrVNa0 

22. Filip UREMOVIC



Ure Ure
Ure Ure
Ure Ure
Oo, Uremovic

Original song:
https://youtu.be/ekr2nIex040?si=hhBk2HAJxjJvPiP3
 

25. YAMAICHI Shuto



Yamaichi Shuto
La la la laa la, laa laa laa
Atsuku tatakae
Yamaichi Shuto 

Original song:
https://youtu.be/7njC5lgL61c?si=GWxL4A74zSR5hYod

29. YAMAHARA Reon



Saayuke Yamahara Reon
Kirisake Yamahara Reon

Original song:
https://youtu.be/jrvfCNv4lyE?si=exM2cDYEi7SV-GkN

49. Svend BRODERSEN



Brodersen, Brodersen
Auf gehts ‘dersen

Original song:
https://youtu.be/qRRBjpqZgrM?si=l4sPrrm5wHcljyf4

91. Lazar ROMANIC




Romanic, Roma goal
Romanic, Roma goal

Original song:
https://youtu.be/9BRLge0jen4?si=b0KFPJnq8RRzzOho

Players joining

Here are our new players for the 2026 season. Apologies to the official site for stealing their photo. I thought I needed something to make this post look slightly more appealing. 

New signings

Svend BRODERSEN

One of two big signings in this window. Regular readers will probably know that I have my doubts about Yamaguchi so I was delighted to see us sign Brodersen from Okayama where he’d been one of their best players. Only missed one match for them last year and that was due to a red card ban. With him in goal they conceded significantly less goals than we did last year, even though they had only just been promoted. Surely will be first choice…. won’t he? Surely he will. I remember he seemed like a nice chap who had a bit of a laugh with us behind the goal when he was playing for Yokohama FC a couple of years ago. I like to think that he will be one of the missing pieces in our jigsaw. Please let this be true…

KONNO Kazuya

Signed from Avispa to link up again with his former manager Hasebe. A short midfielder, (we seem to be a bit low on our complement of them at the moment, hehe), who will presumably challenge for the right wing spot. Ito has long said he prefers to play on the left, so maybe we won’t be quite as reliant on Marcinho as in previous seasons. It’s good that it seems like we will actually have some decent options and competition in 2026.

MOCHIYAMA Kyosuke

Played very briefly for us once last season away at Nagoya but now has a proper contract. Plays as a supporting striker but I think he came on on the left in that Nagoya game. Seems to widely be considered as one to watch so hopefully we’ll get that opportunity in 2026.

OSA Ryuki

Left-sided midfielder who scored 16 goals in 47 appearances for his high school in the Takamado U18 PL East last year. Don’t know much else about him but the stats at least sound promising.

TANIGUCHI Hiroto

The other big signing of the off season and one which has given me a bit of optimism about our chances. Not only was he Verdy’s best defender he was also their second top scorer. And his hattrick against us the season before last is still quite fresh in the memory. Clearly our big weakness last year was defending, and Taniguchi looks like he could play a massive part in sorting that out. Fingers crossed.

YAMAHARA Reon

Right-footed full back signed from Shimizu. Can play on either the right or left of the defence. (Another player with Yama in his name. Could we name a whole starting eleven with Yama players? Maybe). Aside from injury was pretty much an ever present for Shimizu last year. Seems to have only received four yellow cards in five seasons! Presumably he’ll be sent off as soon as he gets on the pitch for us. Clearly the Sai replacement, but I guess time will tell whether we have upgraded or have just gone for someone on a lower wage. (Pure speculation from me here).

YAMAICHI Shuto

Central midfielder joining us from Waseda University. Although he did make the bench for a couple of games at the end of last season. To be honest, I don’t know anything else about him.

Returning from loan

HAYASAKA Yuki

Returned from a season on loan at Iwaki, where he was starting pretty much every game and then disappeared from sight. Not sure what happened, but I suppose at least he got a bit of experience. Unlikely to be able to get anywhere near starting this year, barring any injury disasters, but if he’s not going to play, I’d rather it is with us than with a J2 team on loan.

MATSUNAGANE Yuto

Back with us after a couple of reasonably successful years on loan at Fukushima. Still young and whilst I don’t think he’ll be immediately challenging for a starting spot, will hopefully be useful back up if injuries or transfers occur. Knowing Frontale, presumably both will. 

YUI Kota

Returning from a season on loan at Fukushima United where he didn’t play a great deal, but started to get a bit more pitch time towards the end of the season. If I remember correctly from his time in our youth team, he’s a defensive midfielder. Presumably won’t be getting much involvement this year and maybe will go out on another loan for a bit more experience.

Promoted from youth team

HAYASHI Shunsuke

Centre back promoted from our youth team. Seems to have played once for both the U17 and U19 national team. And that’s about all I know about him. 181cm tall. Presumably will spend this year training in the first team before being loaned out, perhaps in the summer.

KAN Noriharu

I feel a bit sorry for Kan, as I picked him out as one of the best players in our youth team last year, so now he has presumably been cursed. An all action left back who’s taller than some of our centre backs. According to some cursory research I’ve done, he seems to have Chinese citizenship which came as a bit of a surprise. 

Players departing

Transferred to another team

Sung-Ryong JUNG

Transferred to Fukushima. Maybe it was the right time given that the club seemingly thought that Yamaguchi was a better option. Was a great servant to the club and will be greatly missed. I’ll try to get to a Fukushima United game this year to cheer him on.

TANABE Shuto

I think Tanabe did a pretty good job when he was called on. I guess the problem for him is that those situations weren’t particularly regular occurrences. Transferred to Tokyo Verdy where hopefully he can pick up a lot more pitch time. Good luck to him!

YAMAUCHI Hinata

Spent half of last season on loan at Vegalta Sendai after getting involved early on in the season but never quite fulfilling his potential. Perhaps dropped down the pecking order slightly and that is why he has decided to move to Kashiwa Reysol. I know he was wanted by Urawa earlier in his career. Perhaps this was when Rodriguez was in charge, and therefore his move to Kashiwa would make sense. Definitely a feeling that we might live to regret this transfer, but at the same time, you can’t really blame either club or player for wanting it to happen. Good luck to him.

Out on loan

PATRICK VERHON

After spending half of last season on loan at Imabari, he has now moved to Oita Trinita on loan. It didn’t quite happen for him with us after a bright start and then maybe he didn’t quite take off in the way I might have expected when he went out on loan. Pretty much the same story as with Yamauchi! I’m sure there’s a great player in there so he just needs to get some regular minutes and then he’ll hopefully be off and running.

TSUCHIYA Kaito

Following the usual route of our youth team promoted players by spending a season in the first team not doing much and then going out on loan. I think he’s too good for J3, but that should hopefully mean that he can play plenty of games and pick up some experience at Fukushima this year. I’m sure he’ll be back with us sooner or later. (By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned the curse of my shirt choice before. Basically whoever’s shirt I buy leaves shortly afterwards. I was fully aware this was going to always happen so last year got Tsuchiya’s shirt with the hope that his departure would be for experience on loan and this is exactly how it turned out. With these great powers I have, I will forever have to choose my next shirt carefully).

Not offered a new contract

JESIEL

Perhaps his injury record was the reason he was let go. It’s a shame, as like Ando he was a lot more involved in 2025 than in some previous years. I think he can still do it and hope he finds a new club soon. I believe he wants to stay in Japan. 

VAN VERMESKERKEN Sai

Maybe the most surprising of the departures. Was playing quite a bit at right back so a bit of a shock to see him leave. Especially given that Miura and Sasaki will both potentially leave for Europe at some stage. (Them going on holiday to London together has made me think it might come sooner rather than later…). At the moment doesn’t have a club, which is a shock. Perhaps was on a higher salary than some others which might explain why he has left and why he hasn’t found a new club yet. I hope he can find somewhere soon. Good luck to him.
 

Retired

ANDO Shunsuke

Something of a shock retirement especially considering he had a lot more involvement last year than previously. His retirement is likely to have any significant effect on our fortunes. Now is an assistant goal keeping coach with the club. I’m pleased we’ve managed to keep him involved. 

KURUMAYA Shintaro

Another slightly shocking retirement, but one which probably makes sense as he seemed to be feeling the pace a bit. Not sure why he wanted to convert to centre back as I always preferred him out wide. I hope he enjoys his retirement!

Blog update

Just a quick post to update you on what’s happening with this blog. Maybe you might have noticed through the lack of end of season posts, but I’ve kind of lost enthusiasm for writing blog posts. Whilst I am still enjoying going to games and will continue to do so, there are some other things that I feel like I should be focusing on a little bit more rather than writing blog posts. I will however continue to do them for each game, but they will hopefully be significantly shorter. At times I did enjoy writing loads even about very boring matches, but I think I was repeating myself quite a bit and felt that on the whole it was a bit of a waste of time for everyone involved. I haven’t really worked out how the new style posts will go yet and I guess it will probably be a work in progress for the time being. I’ll do a players in and out post soon, which will also hopefully be briefer than in the past and then when the first game comes round, expect to hear from me again. Any feedback or suggestions will be gladly received. Thanks for reading.