Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 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. Joep Koppert did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marked 7.48 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad17 May 2027
Lukas Reich 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Mechelen told Bilal Bafdili something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
43 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and David Bates has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Mechelen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thérence Koudou is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thérence Koudou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Mike Eerdhuijzen’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 Djibril Diani 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 José Marsà signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
43 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thérence Koudou has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The offer from PK-35 for Akin Özcan 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.
7 goals in one match, Rio Robbemond on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of FC Eindhoven and Helmond Sport.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at FC Eindhoven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Massimo Decoene 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Nobody left the FC Eindhoven dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 2‑5 defeat, delivered by Jordy Lang to a room that had heard them before.
Beaten 5 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
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 José Marsà signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at KV Mechelen has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and KV Mechelen have no good answer.
Position 6 on 43 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Eindhoven is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Eindhoven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jorne Spileers 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 long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and FC Eindhoven now know that too.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Decoene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Eindhoven asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at FC Eindhoven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Massimo Decoene 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon FC Eindhoven had all but put away. Vitesse will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutAmir Absalem dropped after a run of poor form
Marked 6.78 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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 FC Eindhoven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Decoene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kevin van Veen 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Decoene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kevin van Veen 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.
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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jort Borgmans has his answer from FC Eindhoven; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Helmond Sport next, and one man in the FC Eindhoven dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Lukas Reich 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Eindhoven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Massimo Decoene and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
0‑5 against Ajax, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
FC Eindhoven are taken apart by Ajax — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sven Simons 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sven Simons. 1‑0 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Eindhoven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the FC Eindhoven dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KV Mechelen can tell you which week it ends in.
David Bates 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Mechelen told Benito Raman something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at KV Mechelen, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Decoene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Willem II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dyon Dorenbosch scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Eindhoven and Jong AZ in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at FC Eindhoven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Massimo Decoene 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Cambuur, and it could have been more.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Rangelo Janga takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rangelo Janga provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Lukas Reich 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.
Kevin van Veen 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.
16 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jordy Lang kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Eindhoven have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Don-Angelo Konadu provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Decoene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dyon Dorenbosch 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.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Dordrecht tried to reorganise, FC Eindhoven did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joep Koppert did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$44.0K was the most the club would pay and Sparta Rotterdam were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robin van Cruijsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Westerlo have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
José Marsà 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.
David Bates 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.
“I watch every KV Mechelen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Eindhoven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Sep 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 Hans De Ketelaere left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KV Mechelen, another week without a signature from Mohamed Soumaré.
In brief
The dugoutBilal Bafdili has become a man the manager trusts
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Simons was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“43 caps was 43 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from FC Eindhoven.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mohamed Soumaré has, at KV Mechelen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Massimo Decoene again, and this time the name on the line is OH Leuven. KV Mechelen are listening politely and promising nothing.