Hato The Sailor Man

As rumoured over the last couple of weeks, it's now been confirmed that Yasuhiro Hato has returned to Yokohama F Marinos following his release by the Squirrels at the end of last season. Meanwhile the club have also announced the arrival of two new members of the coaching staff, in the shape of Koji Gyotoku and Kiyoto Furushima. Gyotoku, who will be working with the first team, has spent most of his coaching career at Shimizu S-Pulse, although his most recent position was as national team boss of Bhutan. Wow. Anyway, goalkeeping coach Furushima comes to Ardija from Shonan Bellmare.

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Happy New Year!

To wish all GGOA readers a very Happy New Year; here's hoping for an excellent 2010. The club's New Year's card can be seen on Js Goal, here.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 22

There's no official confirmation yet, but Nikkan Sports are reporting here that Yosuke Kataoka has moved from Omiya to Kyoto Sanga.

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New Clubs For Tomita, Murayama

Two of the players released by Ardija following the end of the season have found new clubs for 2010. After six seasons as a Squirrel, defender Daisuke Tomita will re-join former Omiya coach Toshiya Miura at Vissel Kobe - who only a matter of weeks ago were reported also to be interested in Yasuhiro Hato. Meanwhile Yusuke Murayama, having spent two-and-a-half-years mostly as a reserve with Ardija, now has a deal at troubled Oita Trinita.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 21

Kyoto Sanga's reported interest in Yosuke Kataoka is in the Nikkan Sports, here. Evidently Sanga are keen on Kataoka as a replacement for outgoing captain Yuto Sato.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 20

There are tabloid rumours that Kyoto Sanga are interested in Omiya defensive midfield player / central defender Yosuke Kataoka. The 27-year-old is coming off the back of his most successful ever season, playing alongside Mato Neretljak in the heart of the Squirrels' back line, where he deservedly replaced an out-of-form Daisuke Tomita.

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Reserve Keeper Signs

Well thank heavens for that. Ardija have completed their goalkeeping contingent for 2010 with the signing on a year's contract of Daisuke Tada from Cerezo Osaka. Tada, who is 27, has been a pro since 2001 but has never really made the breakthrough to become a first choice keeper, having played only 44 league games in that period. Almost half of those appearances were made in the one season he has thus far spent away from the Cherries, in 2008 at J2 minnows Ehime FC. Tada looks set to be the Squirrels' third choice keeper behind Koji Ezumi and new signing Tadashi Kitano.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 19

The Sponichi are reporting here that international midfielder Junichi Inamoto has decided to reject an offer to move to Omiya from current club Rennes and will instead sign for Kawasaki Frontale.

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Ardija Blog Round-up

Just to mention briefly some interesting Omiya-related blog posts. Daigo Kobayashi writes here that he is back in Japan for the holiday season and has no confirmed plans as to where he will play in 2010. He attended a party with current Ardija players Koji Ezumi, Hayato Hashimoto and Tomoya Uchida, plus former Squirrel Hiroshi Morita; there's a photo of the event on Hashimoto's blog, here (why does captain Chikara Fujimoto never attend these types of event? Hmmm). Last but not least, friend of GGOA kenjifootball has given a personal verdict on Omiya's 2009 Player Of The Year on his Kansen Bibouroku blog, here.

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Ardija's Story Of 2009

From the 0-0 draw with Shimizu S-Pulse in March to the 1-1 draw at Oita Trinita at the beginning of this month, the story of Ardija's 2009 J1 season can be followed in three video clips now on Youtube. And following the raging success of Agent Orange's recent use of music videos, I'm going to continue embedding clips, rather than just linking to them. Woohoo. Anyhow, here goes.



Part one



Part two



Part three

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 18

My original headline of Inamoto Arrives For Talks made it sound as if Ardija transfer target Junichi Inamoto is participating in some kind of world-saving diplomatic mission. In fact, according to Sponichi all that's happened is that on Christmas Day he arrived back in Japan to talk to Omiya and Kawasaki Frontale about a transfer from Rennes. All that money and he can't buy himself a coat that fits properly, I notice.

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It's Sugiyama Squirrel

Ardija have on Christmas Day completed the signing from Ventforet Kofu of defender Arata Sugiyama. The 29-year-old has more than 220 J-League appearances to his name, almost all of them with Kofu over the course of the last seven seasons, although he began his career and played a handful of matches at Kashiwa Reysol. The arrival of Sugiyama and of Kazuhiro Murakami - presumably to occupy the two sideback positions - suggests that Omiya will not be pursuing their interest in Yokohama F Marinos' Takanobu Komiyama, or indeed potentially Masato Fujita of Tokyo Verdy.

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Merry Christmas!

GGOA would like to wish all readers, wherever they may be, a very Merry Christmas.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 17

The Yomiuri are reporting that Yokohama F Marinos are also interested in 23-year-old left-sided defender Masato Fujita of Tokyo Verdy, rumoured to be a transfer target for Ardija.

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Squirrels 2010 Start-up Dates

As usual, the Squirrels will be heading off for their 2010 pre-season camp on the island of Guam, with dates confirmed from 27 January to 10 February. The squad will reconvene on Monday 18 January.

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Takagi Heads North-ish

After having been released by the Squirrels at the end of the season just finished, it's been confirmed that reserve goalkeeper Takahiro Takagi has gone in the opposite direction of incoming Ardija netminder Takashi Kitano and will spend 2010 at Albirex Niigata.

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Murakami Signs

Following in the footsteps of goalkeeper Takashi Kitano and central defender Yuki Fukaya, Kazuhiro Murakami has been announced as the Squirrels' third major signing of the winter. The 28-year-old began his career with Yokohama F Marinos but first made J-League appearances with Vegalta Sendai in 2001. After six seasons with Sendai he moved to Kawasaki Frontale, where he has spent three years notching up 75 league games. Although listed as a midfield player, Murakami has mainly played for Kawasaki on the side of the defence. His only goal of 2009 came in the last minute of normal time of the last match of the year, Frontale's 2-1 Emperor's Cup defeat at Vegalta Sendai, brief highlights of which can be seen here.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 16

Sponichi are reporting here that international midfielder Junichi Inamoto is intending to speak to both Omiya and Kawasaki Frontale before the end of this calendar year about a possible transfer from French side Rennes.

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Yoshiyuki No More

Former Squirrels captain Yoshiyuki Kobayashi has been released by the club at the end of his contract. The 31-year-old came to Omiya together with Daigo Kobayashi from Tokyo Verdy prior to the 2006 campaign and was a key player at the heart of Omiya's midfield for the following three seasons. With a serious injury in the latter part of 2008 and the subsequent appointment as coach of Jang Wae Ryong, however, Yoshiyuki was frozen out and made just a handful of appearances in the first half of 2009, before being loaned out to Kashiwa Reysol in June. Jang's having been kept on for another year therefore meant that the player's return to Ardija was very unlikely to happen.

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Close-Season Gossip, pt 15

The Niigata Nippo are reporting that the released Squirrels duo of keeper Takahiro Takagi and goalkeeping coach Atsushi Shirai are both set to sign deals with Albirex Niigata.

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