This has been a bit of a quiet off-season for us. Which is something of a surprise considering we were pretty shit last year. Aside from players returning from loans and signing permanently after a loan we basically only have one player joining us. I did always say though that I thought we had enough talent but were just not using it very well. Guess I will either look like a genius or an idiot as the season progresses. Equally, we only lost one player, and he wasn’t someone who started that regularly. It’s a shame to see him leave though. I guess it’s not surprise that after a dodgy season we don’t have a lot of players being snapped up by Belgian league teams on loans that become free transfers. So here we go with the ins and outs, with the usual stolen-from-the-official-website photos (sorry). Ins will be in squad number order and outs will be in alphabetical order by surname.
Ins
16. Yuto Ozeki
BACK FROM LOAN
Has returned from his spell at Fukushima with his reputation significantly enhanced. Whether that is enough for him to get a look in in our perpetually crowded midfield I don’t know, but I hope so. Perhaps this could be a season for him to get involved from the bench semi-regularly before staking a claim for a starting spot the following year. Time for him to show that he can do it in the top flight. Good luck to him!
17. Tatsuya Ito
PERMANENT TRANSFER FROM 1. FC MAGDEBURG
When I asked my Belgian friend about Ito he said that he was probably the best Japanese player to have recently played in the Belgian league. This quite excited me, but looking at his stats, (21 games in over three years), I suspect my friend might have confused him with a different Ito… Since then he’s been playing in the German league (woohoo!!!) in the third and second tier (oh) and has at least been involved a bit more. This will be his first season playing in the J League as he left Kashiwa very young before getting the chance to play. I dunno about this transfer really. He’s not young any more, he hasn’t scored a great deal of goals considering he’s a forward, and like many of our players he isn’t very tall. Basically he seems to be a direct replacement for Tono. Can apparently play on the left or right side so expect to see him challenging Marcinho or Ienaga if things go well, or challenging Miyagi for the spot of four choice winger if things don’t go well. This all sounds a bit negative, but the reality is that this is a great chance for him to restart his career which seems to have stalled a bit since… forever actually. I’m interested to see how he does.
27. Ryota Kamihashi
REJOINING AFTER WASEDA UNIVERSITY
A new Ryota in the squad (is that a good omen?). A Frontale youth product who went to Waseda and has now rejoined the fold. Centre back who is the same height as Takai but a couple of years older. Left footed player so that’s one other difference between him and Takai. We have a lot of centre backs in the squad now so who knows where he’ll be in the pecking order.
30. Hiroto Noda
SIGNED FROM SHIZUOKA GAKUEN HIGH SCHOOL
Right back signed from the same school that we got Kanda from. And also where Oshima, Hasegawa, Hatate and Tanabe came from so there’s a bit of a tradition with us getting their players. Mixed results though when it comes to how they get on, I guess. To be honest, I don’t know much about him as you can probably guess from this rambling. Presumably won’t be challenging Sai for the spot too soon, but it’s nice to actually have some back up in that position who isn’t someone playing out of position.
33. Keun-Hyeong Lee
SIGNED FROM BOIN HIGH SCHOOL
Bit of a mystery as even though he signed for us late last season we haven’t seen much of him at all. Wasn’t in the preseason squad photo and didn’t appear at the new season ceremony. He is very young though so maybe his schooling might be the reason we haven’t seen any sign of him yet. In reality he probably won’t have any involvement this year, as I suspect it will be Sung-Ryong and Yamaguchi who will battle for the spot. Like the fact that we’ve gone out and signed a young player though. And would be some nice continuity having him eventually take over from Sung-Ryong. But I suspect some other keepers might have something to say about that.
39. Kaito Tsuchiya
PROMOTED FROM YOUTH TEAM
Have seen Tsuchiya play quite a few times for the youth team and was always impressed by his skills on the ball and his calmness. Was also impressed that he was in the core supporters section at a game in the National Stadium the year before last. With rumours about Takai leaving us sooner or later, Tsuchiya might get more of an opportunity this year than we might have expected. We’ve got a lot of centre backs now but it seems that we still struggle to fill the spots sometimes due to injuries and suspensions. Hope he gets a go and if he does we’ll then be able to work out whether he’ll be the kind of youth player who leaves on loan in his second season or if he can jump straight into first team contention like Takai did.
98. Louis Yamaguchi
PERMANENT SIGNING FROM MACHIDA ZELVIA
It’s nice to see Yamaguchi join us after a loan spell last season. He didn’t get a massive amount of time on the pitch but I guess that’s usually the case for a second choice keeper. I don’t think he’ll be challenging for the first choice spot just yet, but I guess time will tell. With Hayasaka out on loan I can’t imagine anyone else will be taking his spot on the bench so I suppose 2025 is the year for him to show he could be our first choice keeper.
Out
Yuki Hayasaka
LOAN TO IWAKI FC
Only played one game and I feel he was unfairly blamed by some for us conceding three goals, which is harsh considering that no matter who we played at the stage, we always let in goals for fun. A season on loan should give him the chance to get some more games under his belt and hopefully he’ll do well and come back to us much improved having done something more than just train all the time.
Renji Matsui
PERMANENT TRANSFER TO VEGALTA SENDAI
Finally Matsui has freed himself from us. It’s a real shame that he never really got a crack with us but he wanted to play in a position that is always ludicrously over-subscribed in our squad that it makes sense for him to leave. Can’t blame him for jumping ship when you consider that he was playing football at Sendai and they wanted him on a permanent deal. Suspect he might rise back up to J1 sooner or later and maybe will come back to haunt us, but wish him all the best.
Daiya Tono
PERMANENT TRANSFER TO YOKOHAMA F MARINOS
Maybe the big shock departure of the off-season. Probably didn’t get as much time on the pitch with us as he might have expected so moving on with that in mind makes sense. At the same time, his great admirer during his season on loan at Fukuoka is now our manager so you might have expected him to stay. I guess the admiration isn’t mutual. Quite disappointed to see a player leave us for those guys down the road. And the fact that he’s signed for them makes it difficult for me to wish him well. I guess I can hope that he scores in every match but in spite of his goals his team loses every game. Does that seem like a reasonable compromise?
Kota Yui
LOAN TO FUKUSHIMA UNITED
An extremely unsurprising season on loan for a player from our youth team who’s spent the whole of the previous season getting zero involvement. Will replace Ozeki in the middle for them and if he can have even half the impact Ozeki did that will be a great season for him.
Ze Ricardo
LOAN TO SHONAN BELLMARE
Was initially partially involved at the start of last season but fell out of contention and when he was left out of the ACL squad that seemed to be the writing on the wall for him. So slightly surprised that he’s going on loan rather than a permanent transfer. I think he’s a good player so hopefully he can show us what we’ve been missing. Well, I say missing, but that suggests that we were aware of what he can do, but I don’t think he’s really had the chance to demonstrate that yet.
Came back and went out again
Takatora Einaga
BACK FROM TEGAVAJARO MIYAZAKI, OUT TO FC RYUKYU
Taiyo Igarashi
BACK FROM RENOFA YAMAGUCHI, OUT TO TOCHIGI SC
Not much to say about these two as we clearly haven’t seen much of them for a while. Not a great sign that Igarashi has dropped from J2 to J3, but at least it might mean he gets some more time on the pitch. Einaga has jumped around a few clubs on loan in the last couple of seasons never quite delivering on the early promise he showed. Hopefully he can have a good season at Ryukyu and restart his career. Presumably he’s already got his first win under his belt in the friendly where J3 Ryukyu beat us 2-0, so he’s maybe started pre-season better than we have.
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