17 Jan 2008(Thu)

January 16, 2008: When will the torment end for fans of JEF United?

The new season is still over seven weeks away but already JEF "Disunited" are being talked of as relegation candidates after a winter of discontent between the two main backers, Furukawa and JR East.

Mizumoto (Gamba), Mizuno (Celtic), Sato (Kyoto), Yamagishi (Frontale) and Hanyu (FC Tokyo) are either going, going or gone, and the return of the versatile Sakamoto from Albirex is the only bright spot.

JEF are used to losing good players -- Yamaguchi, Chano, Murai, Abe -- but never on this scale, and to describe them as the J1 "crisis club" even in January is hardly an exaggeration.

Well, at least they have a new manager in Josip Kuze, the Croatian coach who led Gamba in 1996 and 1997, but how many players he will have when they report back for training is anyone's guess.

It is truly a sorry state of affairs for JEF, as everything seemed to be going so well with their two Nabisco Cup titles and one of the best stadiums in the league, Fukuda Denshi Arena, near Soga Station.

I remember chatting to one of the club officials outside the ground last season and he told me the number of season ticket-holders had jumped from 1,800 at Rinkai Stadium to 5,000, which was a remarkable feat for the club. And JEF were taking as many fans away as used to attend the home games at distant Goi.

With an attractive team to watch and some exciting players, JEF were on the up and up. But now it has fallen apart, and the departure of Hanyu to FC Tokyo is the latest bitter blow.

Hanyu has been an outstanding player for United, a player who typifies the Japanese qualities so admired by Osim. But his talent and potential were spotted long before that, by a former coach, Jozef Venglos, in 2002. This was Hanyu's first season at United out of Tsukuba University, and while the media buzzed about Abe, Venglos told me he had never seen a player improve day by day, match by match, as quickly as Hanyu. What a shame, Venglos said, Hanyu had been lost to university football for so many years before joining a professional club -- in his opinion six years too late.

Happy memories -- and that's all JEF fans have at the moment.

ends