“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 The request is on a desk at Groningen, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Groningen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Groningen know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Guus Malen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kenneth Stengs 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. Georginio Lang 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Younes Taha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brynjólfur Willumsson signs something — a contract at Groningen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
2 goals in 15 games at Persija — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Groningen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rijk Janse will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Groningen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marvin Peersman 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 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.
Nobody at Groningen 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 Marvin Peersman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jorg Schreuders signs something — a contract at Groningen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Groningen that is a harder question to answer.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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 Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brynjólfur Willumsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Younes Taha’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Groningen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Etienne Vaessen signs something — a contract at Groningen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3‑0 against Merani, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thijmen Blokzijl and Groningen agree another 5 years.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Groningen and Heracles, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorg Schreuders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Robbin Weijenberg 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.
Marvin Peersman 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.
6 goals in one match, Mats Seuntjens on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Groningen and Twente.
Twente left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Jacob Ondrejka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
10 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with Volendam 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefán Ingi Sigurðarson 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.
Go Ahead Eagles asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Groningen can pretend not to have heard.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Go Ahead Eagles the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Groningen will enjoy reviewing.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tygo Land did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Heerenveen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Robbin Weijenberg ended with $1.5M changing hands and Go Ahead Eagles out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Groningen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Helmond Sport have kept their man, and Groningen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marvin Peersman 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Go Ahead Eagles people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Go Ahead Eagles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitesse have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0‑1 to Utrecht, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Quincy Klaassen to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadWords at Go Ahead Eagles training over how hard people work