“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Go Ahead Eagles may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mees Hilgers 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bas Simons has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Wout Timber has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luuk Dost has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nathan De Roon has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Joris Kramer 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Go Ahead Eagles will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Go Ahead Eagles is running low.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Wout Coomans has, at Go Ahead Eagles, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean James was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sampdoria have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Go Ahead Eagles will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutJari De Busser asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThibo Baeten has become a man the manager trusts
Go Ahead Eagles and Fortuna Sittard have settled on $280.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Calvin Twigt and Go Ahead Eagles agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean James was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Go Ahead Eagles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Go Ahead Eagles, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
Something was said to Jari De Busser and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Go Ahead Eagles has been clear about where Victor Edvardsen stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Gustavo Varela is in the works
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mees Hilgers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jari De Busser signs something — a contract at Go Ahead Eagles or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathis Suray trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Melle Meulensteen 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson signs something — a contract at Go Ahead Eagles or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dylan Mertens’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Go Ahead Eagles needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutMathis Suray knocks on the manager's door
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Go Ahead Eagles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Melle Meulensteen 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oscar Pettersson. 2‑0 against Excelsior, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer from Valerenga for Oskar Sivertsen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mees Hilgers 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Mees Hilgers 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Go Ahead Eagles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Go Ahead Eagles game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zwolle runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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 Gerrit Nauber is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ofosu Boakye, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.46
A mark of 8.46 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mees Hilgers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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.
Melle Meulensteen 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.
Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson 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.
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.
Minute 93, against AZ, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dean James 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Go Ahead Eagles, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Memphis Timber was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Go Ahead Eagles dressing room was either.