Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Tygo Land 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérôme Déom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Something was said to Cain Seedorf and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It needed Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Jong PSV, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Roda can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tygo Land scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Tygo Land 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorthy Mokio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tygo Land 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marco Tol 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Déom 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.
Roda asked and Derby County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑1 to Jong AZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Marco Tol's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ryan De Roon after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Justin Treichel is on it.
$2.8M was the most the club would pay and Ajax were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Roda have done the hard part with PSV, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Déom 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.
Twente will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Yannick Gerritsen has pre-agreed a move to Roda, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Nordsjaelland have kept their man, and Roda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Roda have gone to Ajax with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Roda can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Ajax is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Marko Pjaca 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Roda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Marko Pjaca 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Jérôme Déom 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joshua Schwirten. 2‑1 against Emmen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Roda has been clear about where Michael Breij stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Pjaca 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérôme Déom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Justin Treichel is on it.
In brief
The dugoutJérôme Déom knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Ryan De Roon on the draw
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul. 3‑1 against MVV Maastricht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Ryan De Roon kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Maren Haile-Selassie 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Déom 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.
Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Ryan De Roon kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Brahim Ghalidi has just signed for Roda, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Déom 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 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.
Marko Pjaca 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Roda know it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Enoch Mastoras did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Ryan De Roon kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Roda have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” PSM had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jérôme Déom 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roda asked and Derby County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Roda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Roda know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Roda, another week without a signature from Mitchell Paulissen.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Tol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Roda 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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Roda and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
SquadJérôme Déom is training like a man with a point to make
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denso Kasius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
RKC Waalwijk held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Roda answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Roda pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Ryan De Roon could afford to be generous.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Roda know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jérôme Déom. 1‑0 against Den Bosch, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Lucas Beerten 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denso Kasius 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.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Michael Breij 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.
9.96. 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.
14 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Roda and Jong PSV in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Roda close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denso Kasius 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.
Roda asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mitchell Paulissen 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roda asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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.” Ryan De Roon kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Cain Seedorf and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Denso Kasius is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Dario Van Den Buijs 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.
10 goals in one match, Jack Cooper-Love on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and Jong Utrecht.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony van den Hurk 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.
Ajax go through and Roda go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Luca Everink 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
At 22 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.
Marked 8.52 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.07, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
In brief
Player ratingsAnthony Smits beats them one at a time
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. TOP Oss kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Roda will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilias Takidine 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ryan De Roon after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Jérôme Déom had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Almere City were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Jérôme Déom takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jérôme Déom provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fynn Schenten 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ryan De Roon after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Roda man
Dario Van Den Buijs 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jack Cooper-Love. 1‑0 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fynn Schenten 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joshua Schwirten has his answer from Roda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Everink trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fynn Schenten is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
19 goals in one match, Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and Jong PSV.
At 20 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jérôme Déom at his very best
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at KAA Gent is saying, and nobody at Roda is enjoying the guessing.
Roda asked and Willem II said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Juul Timmermans again, and this time the name on the line is De Graafschap. Roda are listening politely and promising nothing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Roda, another week without a signature from Luca Everink.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lucas Beerten 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Ryan De Roon left the room before anybody could ask which.