50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Den Bosch lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A mark of 9.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.34 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.
7 goals in one match, Liam van Nistelrooij on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Den Bosch and Jong PSV.
8.40. 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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Den Bosch lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 The request is on a desk at Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sheddy Barglan scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sufyan van Daalen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Den Bosch the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Den Bosch can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Rein Van Helden 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Den Bosch lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thijs van Leeuwen provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 8.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jayden Ettienne is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Liam van Nistelrooij 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.
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.
He is 18 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against De Graafschap in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Out, 0‑1 to Sparta Rotterdam, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Mees Laros, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.38
A mark of 8.38 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7.90, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sergio Oerlemans scored, was marked 7.24, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mees Laros. 3‑1 against Jong PSV, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
In brief
SquadRaised voices on the training ground at Den Bosch
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Den Bosch lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Den Bosch close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $460.0K — a club that wants Tijme Wessels enough to be asked twice.
Feyenoord wanted more than $440.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Liam van Nistelrooij 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jeffry Fortes has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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 Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Remco Balk takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remco Balk provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees Laros 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.