Marked for Nigel Marengo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
20 matches without a win for Telstar
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Telstar are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Telstar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Izu Onunta is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Zwolle, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Telstar
Tyrese Noslin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
Amir Ismaïl scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Heracles, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Rico Speksnijder 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Telstar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Telstar
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted Telstar
13 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Telstar can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Telstar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 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 Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Telstar
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Telstar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nigel Marengo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nigel Marengo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Telstar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rico Speksnijder was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Nov 2026
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Doğan Gölpek, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 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 Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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 Telstar will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by PSV, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Djenahro Nunumete has just signed for Telstar, and for once the answer mattered.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Telstar
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Telstar asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 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 Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nigel Marengo and Telstar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gerald Alders, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.