Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Pepijn van de Merbel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Remco Balk 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.
Den Bosch have made the call to Toronto FC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Den Bosch will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Den Bosch is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Remco Balk 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Den Bosch can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Genk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kevin Felida has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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.
Gavin Vlijter 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Den Bosch is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Den Bosch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Den Bosch asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Position 13, 26 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Den Bosch, another week without a signature from Danny Bakker.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mees Laros 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 dugout28 Dec 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 0‑1 Jeroen Aké left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mees Laros did not need any: 7.90, 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 Den Bosch 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 Remco Balk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Den Bosch have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kelvin Neijenhuis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A season average of 7.11 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Den Bosch know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Remco Balk 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kelvin Neijenhuis did not need any: 9.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
14 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Den Bosch and Jong Ajax in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remco Balk 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 Den Bosch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against FC Eindhoven? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
De Graafschap next, and one man in the Den Bosch dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Den Bosch will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Remco Balk 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.
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jeroen Aké to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stan Maas 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.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Felida trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Remco Balk 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Danny Bakker’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Den Bosch needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Den Bosch, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Den Bosch know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutMees Bakker has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Den Bosch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mees Laros 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Thijs van Leeuwen 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Den Bosch, another week without a signature from Danny Bakker.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Koen Schilder
Jong PSV will want this one forgotten quickly: 14‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Den Bosch were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 121th minute. Heerenveen will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Den Bosch will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Remco Balk 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
Nobody at Den Bosch 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.
In brief
The dugoutGavin Vlijter unhappy with how he is being used
Player ratingsThe whistle followed Danny Bakker around
At 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Den Bosch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marvin Peersman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorg Schreuders 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. La Equidad have kept their man, and Groningen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Still no offer on the table, and Etienne Vaessen’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Groningen are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Groningen, and both men came out saying it was fine.