Marked for Michel Driezen
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Vitesse's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vitesse has to find a result from somewhere.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a goal for Vitesse
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Alexander Büttner 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
ADO Den Haag left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Elias Huth dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Michel Driezen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vitesse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Maher 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.
Squad26 Oct 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 Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jillian Bernardina damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 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 Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
Willem II made Vitesse work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alexander Büttner 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Yuval Ranon
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Groningen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Michel Driezen 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Vitesse
8 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vitesse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
7.53, 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Vitesse say no — this time
The offer from Willem II for Tom Vlietstra 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alexander Büttner 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Heerenveen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Maher 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Vitesse 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Vitesse, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 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 Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑1 to ADO Den Haag, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Adam Maher 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alexander Büttner 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Vitesse against AZ
0‑1 to AZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Michel Driezen 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Vitesse signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
Michel Driezen is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vitesse has been clear about where Michel Driezen stands, which is more than many ever get.