A narrow victory saw Thespakusatsu Gunma end their playoff hoodoo to earn their first ever promotion to the top tier of Japanese football in 2031. Now the hard work began for Robaato Rasamu to build a side capable of survival.
The promotion saw Gunma’s bank balance suddenly jump to £7.2m with £23k of the £62k wage budget going spare. Rasamu allowed 12 players to leave at the end of their contracts and he had a £5m transfer kitty to work with. As per usual, Gunma were bombarded with bids from J2 sides for their best youth prospects.
However, just as predictably, Rasamu’s idiotic chairman Takanori Yamazaki struck yet again as he accepted a pathetic £1.9m bid for star striker Matheus from Niigata (who are in J2), which included £800k in instalments over 12 months and only £1m upfront. Then, just as Gunma were settling into J1, the chairman accepted a £5m bid for homegrown striker Masaya Nishi, who luckily rejected the move.
That irritating sale forced Rasamu to throw 6ft 6in recent youth graduate Yusuke Ishii into the first team. He strengthened the defence with Masahiro Umetsu, who was at the club on loan last season, for £210k from Akita, Naoki Higashi for £300k from Cerezo and 6ft 4in Argentinian Mauricio Maciel for £9k from Juv Antoniana. The midfield was bolstered with Iranian 18-year-old Asghar Zaraei for £200k from Mes Rafsanjan and Rasamu replaced Matheus with exciting 18-year-old Liberian striker Peter Tweh for £52k from Banik Sokolov, where he scored 20 in 32 last season. He also promoted left back Takashi Koga and centre back Yuto Kumagai.
Rasamu initally decided to revert to the more conservative 4-4-2 he’d used in the earlier days of the save. Tweh comes in alongside Nishi up top, although Rasamu was a little worried about having two diminutive strikers. However, he eventually settled on the odd-looking 4-4-2 meets 5-3-2 approach he’d implemented last season, which sees Maciel play as a wide centre back, captain Ryotaro Kodama slotting in as a ball playing centre back and Shota Asada playing as a wice central midfielder.
Thespa Gunma’s First Taste of J1 League
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese bookies didn’t give Gunma too much hope of surviving in J1, predicting them to finish 19th with 1000/1 title odds. Kawasaki Frontale are 10/3 favourites, along with FC Tokyo (9/2), Sanfrecce Hiroshima (13/2), Kashiwa Reysol (15/2), Machida Zelvia (8/1), Kashima Antlers (9/1) and holders Urawa Red Diamonds (13/1), so the top of the league looks pretty evenly matched.
Gunma’s first taste of J1 was at Shimizu S-Pulse, and they started brightly as Asada’s shot was parried over. From the resulting corner, Higashi’s header deflected over his centre back partner Diogo Soares Cruz and into the back of the net. Shimizu equalised from the second phase of a corner, then went in front in the same circumstances. But Gunma equalised as Nishi collected a loose pass and raced through to calmly finish one-on-one. Shimizu went in front again with a move akin to prime Barcelona, but Rasamu threw Ishii on and it worked as he flicked on a long ball for Nishi to go through and double his tally. And, despite having just 27% possession, they nicked an impressive 3-3.
Gunma’s first home game was against Hiroshima, who were far too good and eased to a 2-0 win, before another Nishi goal nicked a 1-1 at FC Tokyo. Rasamu tinkered with his tactics early on and a move to the 5-3-2 worked as Soares Cruz and Nishi earned the club’s first J1 win over Sagan Tosu before Tweh got his first goal in a narrow 3-2 defeat at Kashima and bagged a brace as Gunma secured a superb 4-2 win at home to Avispa Fukuoka. And Nishi’s form won him the August player of the month award – which Rasamu cheekily took a photo of and sent to the Chairman on WhatsApp.
The good form continued as Nishi scored the only goal at Yokohama FC and nicked a late winner at home to Vegalta Sendai, which lifted them to 4th in the league after 7 games. The good run ended with a bang with a 3-0 defeat at Kawasaki Frontale, but a great performance saw the rapidly improving Tweh bag a hat trick to inspire a 3-0 win at fellow promoted side Gifu. Gunma continued to compete with J1’s finest, including denying champions Urawa until the 88th minute and winger Tatsuhiro Takahashi scoring the only goal at home to fellow promoted side Omiya Ardija. While Ishii got his first senior goal in a 3-1 defeat at Gamba Osaka. And Gunma headed into the winter break sitting in 9th place on 31 points at the halfway point of the season, which meant any predicted relegation concerns were long gone.
Consolidating J1 Status
It took over a year for the ridiculous bug that caused rested players to be offered out to clubs to be rectified. And, with that latest annoyance out of the way, Rasamu wasted no time dishing out big new deals to Nishi, Asada, Kodama, Soares Cruz and goalkeeper Tomoyuki Koyama. His overperformance saw Rasamu offered interviews by a few J1 sides, including Machida Zelvia, which he used as a bargaining tool to get improved youth facilities out of the chairman at the eye-watering cost of £2m. As a result, Rasamu kept his powder dry in the January transfer window.
Gunma began 2032 with Tweh earning a point at home to Shimizu and scoring the only goal against FC Tokyo before advanced wingback Myogan impressed in a 3-1 win at home to Kashima. That lifted Gunma up to 6th and moved them past the magical 40-point barrier but, furthermore, they only trailed leaders Vissel Kobe by 4 points with a game in hand! Rasamu fully expected their form to drop away and, despite a strong March, including wins over Kawasaki and Gifu, they did eventually tail off with a poor April.
However, they got back to form with an Ishii double leading a 4-0 win at Kyoto Sanga in mid-May, before the homegrown front two of Nishi and Ishii secured a vital 2-1 victory at home Kashiwa, which secured them in at least 7th place. Gunma completed the season at Machida Zelvia, who’d already been relegated two years on from winning the Asian Champions League, and Higashi and Ishii strikes earned another 2-1 win.
The final day success saw Gunma leapfrog Vissel Kobe to finish in an impressive 6th place in J1. They finished on 60 points after 16 wins, 12 draws and 10 defeats, scoring 57 and conceding 46. Nishi was the 9th top scorer in J1 with 14 in 37, and Tweh was 11th top scorer with 13 in 35 and 11th top assister with 8. While Ishii had the 16th best rating of 7.23 in 15 games, Maciel made the most blocks (32), followed by Kodama and Myogan (31), who also made the 6th and 7th most tackles (79 and 76), Soares Cruz made the 2nd most key tackles (9), Luc Andre Siakam made the 2nd most interceptions (124) and Koyama made the most saves (208), had the highest save percentage (86%) and saved 3 out of 6 penalties. As a result, 17-year-old Ishii was named as J1 Best Young Player.
Huge Overperformance and a Golden Generation
Rasamu wasn’t overly surprised that Gunma had bucked the odds, but he certainly wasn’t expecting his young side to finish in the top half. Nishi broke his own club record for most goals in a season with 20 in 44, followed by Tweh (16), Ishii (9 in 18) and Myogan and Asada (6). Takahashi led the way with 10 assists, followed by Tweh (9), Nishi (8), Yoshiaki Ishikawa (6) and Asada (5).
Rasamu’s attribute ID system revealed that Myogan is now the best player at the club, closely followed by the improving Tweh and Siakam. Homegrown players combined for a total of 467 league appearances, scoring 54 goals with 47 assists, and 48 cup games, with 16 goals and 15 assists. While Koyama, Kodama and Nishi all passed 200 games for Gunma this season, and Nishi is closing in on 100 goals for the club. Click the chart below for a full breakdown.
And here’s a look at the youth sides, which has been bolstered by a few more exciting prospects over the last 12 months, with 15 players having at least 4.5 star potential.
The potential was boosted by a stellar youth intake led by five elite prospects in right back Yuji Nagashima, winger Koki Ogura, striker Atsushi Shimizu, centre back Shuto Yamada and goalkeeper Daiki Honda, along with 3.5-star potential wingers Yoshiki Tanaka and Keita Hatano, striker Shusaku Uchiyama and left back Ryuki Yamamichi.
So the future was looking very bright at Thespa Gunma, and Rasamu was really excited about the potential of his young stars. He was looking to promote more youngsters into the first team next season, when he hoped they could again push for a top-half finish in J1 League.
Could Gunma continue to overperform in their second season in Japan’s top tier? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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