Nanami out, Hato in?

Sports Hochi house of dubious rumors and news is reporting that MF Hiroshi Nanami will be heading back to Jubilo Iwata at the close of the 2007 cycle. The 35 year old former National Teamer had a disappointing year filled with injuries after a credible 2006 campaign for Cerezo Osaka. If I had to guess, I think it's for the purposes of retiring as a Jubilite.

The same rag is reporting that Omiya LB Yasuhiro Hato is a target for next years squad. Hato would be the second Omiya defender in 2 years to take the jump to Verdy after Yukio Tsuchiya did the same last campaign.

World Soccer Magazine posts their end of the year awards

And boy do they suck!!!!!!!!!

Best 11- 3-4-3 formation

GK-Takahiro Takagi Consadole (I agree......had Junnsuke Schneider stayed healthy, I imagine he would have gotten the nod)

DF- Yushi Soda Consadole (Again, no problem with this one)

DF-Yukio Tsuchiya Verdy

DF Toshihide Saito Shonan (one of two dubious Bellmare picks by WSM.......shockingly Jean, who was their best player this year.....don't argue with me....was left off the list altogether. A case could be made for Montedios Leonardo as well)

MF Daisuke Saito Kyoto
MF Toshiya Ishii Kyoto (these two I don't have a problem with, but they chose 4 from the 3rd place Kyoto squad......seriously? Did they only watch Shonan/Kyoto matches this season?)

MF Adiel- Before I start, I just want to say I like Adiel. I think he's a good player and he had a nice season. He put up a respectable 13 and 7 and his team finished 6th. Respectable but not great and certainly not best 11. Ohhhhhh there's more. Why Avispa's Alex 26 and 5 or Lopes who had similar numbers but put his squad in contention until the last two games didn't get the nod is a mystery.

MF Tatsuya Furuhashii- Nice pick and the catalyst for a season turnaround

FW Paulinho
FW Takaaki Tokushige Kyoto Again I have to question the wisdom in picking 4 off a team who didn't get straight promotion. Diego put up great numbers after he was moved up to forward and Sagan FW Yoshihito Fujita got 21 goals as the only option on their squad. Davi was great for Consadole.

FW Hulk- 37 and 14, possibly the best season ever in J2.......so who do the mouth breathers at WSM pick as their MVP?

ADIEL??????????????????

Seriously? ADIEL? What kind of joke is that?

Manager of the year went to Vegalta head man Tatsuya Mochizuki......y'know the one guy who couldn't get the job done this year. A case could be made for Ramos, Miura, and my pick Levir Culpi (Who I thought shouldn't have been hired in the first place but proved me wrong)

Unbelievable