Marked for Adrian Blake
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Alonzo Engwanda 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Adrian Blake, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcelo Torres, and the manager let it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
The chances came and went for Nacho Ferri
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Utrecht have had the benefit of it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Utrecht
4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vasilis Barkas 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jamal Amofa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Utrecht have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I watch every Utrecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Groningen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesper Karlsson, and the manager let it.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Cambuur leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Nov 2026
A European lesson for Utrecht
0‑1 against Beroe. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
There were 6 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Adrian Blake, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Utrecht
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Utrecht are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alonzo Engwanda 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Utrecht
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Sep 2026
A European night to remember for Utrecht
2‑1 against Sion, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Tijn den Boggende at 20 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tijn den Boggende did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rafik el Arguioui is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 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 Utrecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A masterclass from David Min
Marked 9.20 — 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Tijn den Boggende’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Utrecht.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasilis Barkas
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match15 Aug 2026
6‑2, and Gjivai Zechiël took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Utrecht tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zidane Iqbal has left for Zwolle in a $2.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vasilis Barkas 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match15 Aug 2026
Gjivai Zechiël among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Gjivai Zechiël on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Utrecht and Zwolle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Adrian Blake has come up in conversations Utrecht were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces17 Aug 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.