Marked for Robin Pröpper
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stav Lemkin and Twente agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Myron Boadu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robbin Weijenberg, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Lars Unnerstall has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Twente will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ramiz Zerrouki’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead9 Aug 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lars Unnerstall’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Twente needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2027
Twente finish in position 5
60 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
Match1 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Twente right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 May 2027
Three points for Twente, 3‑1 the final word against Heracles in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces3 May 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings3 May 2027
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout3 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout3 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Twente told Lars Unnerstall something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ramiz Zerrouki pops up at the right end — 7.99
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sondre Ørjasæter has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Feyenoord, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Twente told Robin Pröpper something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tim Gakpo kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Koen Oosterhof falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sondre Ørjasæter is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bart van Rooij is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Max Bruns
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michal Rosiak and Twente agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Max Bruns
7.52, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Twente had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Half-satisfied: Tim Gakpo on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Sparta Rotterdam will be the happier side with the point.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Robin Pröpper
Nobody at Twente is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Twente
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Robin Pröpper
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Twente are still strangers to each other
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market12 Oct 2026
Max Bruns is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Twente has been clear about where Max Bruns stands, which is more than many ever get.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Sparta Rotterdam next, and one man in the Twente dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Max Bruns knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Twente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Oct 2026
1‑4 to Ajax, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Twente
Lars Unnerstall was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Koen Oosterhof is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match4 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Twente dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
International break empties Twente
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Wout Weghorst named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Wout Weghorst is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Twente asked and New England Revolution said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Twente
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Twente
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bart van Rooij was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Twente against PSV
1‑3 to PSV, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Twente
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Twente can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.