It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Thomas Claes 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.
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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zulte Waregem, another week without a signature from Dirk Asare.
Union SG next, and one man in the Zulte Waregem dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutJevon Simons knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Claes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Zulte Waregem pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zulte Waregem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Serxho Ujka 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.
Zulte Waregem 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jevon Simons commits to Zulte Waregem for another 5 years.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zulte Waregem can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Zulte Waregem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zulte Waregem asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Serxho Ujka 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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.
28 games, 19 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Zulte Waregem now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Célestin De Schrevel ended with $480.0K changing hands and RAAL La Louviere out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
Zulte Waregem 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.
Oumar Diouf 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Junior Sambia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Zulte Waregem will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The phone has started ringing about Anosike Ementa again, and this time the name on the line is RAAL La Louviere. Zulte Waregem are listening politely and promising nothing.
Zulte Waregem asked and Olympic Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
19 goals in 28 games at De Graafschap — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zulte Waregem updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Waasland-Beveren pay $140.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Hedl 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zulte Waregem, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Denzel Eijken has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denzel Eijken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around De Graafschap the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Reuven Niemeijer 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reuven Niemeijer 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.
“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 De Graafschap will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at De Graafschap. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
Something was said to Tobias Hedl and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andres Labie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
In brief
SquadSalim Diakité is the talk of the training ground
Position 3 on 71 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Georginio Weghorst was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the De Graafschap dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kelvin Neijenhuis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 3, 70 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ibrahim Cissoko 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.
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. De Graafschap know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at De Graafschap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
27 appearances away from home and 19 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leander Fellaini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thorgan Alderweireld is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Romelu Tielemans 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nacer Alderweireld is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zulte Waregem, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Laurent Lemoine has written the date down.
In brief
SquadAlouis Diriken is training like a man with a point to make
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. De Graafschap will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Reuven Niemeijer decided nobody was going anywhere. FC Eindhoven had no time left to answer.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jannes Wieckhoff and De Graafschap agree another 4 years.
At 23 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Match10 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for De Graafschap. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reuven Niemeijer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Levi Schoppema 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 18 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at De Graafschap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at De Graafschap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Reuven Niemeijer signs something — a contract at De Graafschap or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for De Graafschap
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zulte Waregem is running low.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Claes and Zulte Waregem agree another 4 years.
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.
Youssoupha Mbodji 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Hedl 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.
In brief
The dugoutJunior Sambia knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ibrahim Cissoko 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 Mar 2027
At 21, Jevon Simons is already the best thing here
An average of 7.08 in a first team he is several years too young for. De Graafschap have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. De Graafschap will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antoine Lejoly and De Graafschap agree another 4 years.
Ibrahim Cissoko 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fedde de Jong 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; De Graafschap are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Zulte Waregem know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Kiilerich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Brent Gabriel's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ibrahim Cissoko 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason De Graafschap will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
Ibrahim Cissoko 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.
De Graafschap asked and Arouca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Louka Vanderbruggen and De Graafschap agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Reuven Niemeijer's mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. De Graafschap will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” De Graafschap may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
De Graafschap close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zulte Waregem is running low.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Westerlo have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Zulte Waregem had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lazio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Kiilerich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason De Graafschap will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kelvin Neijenhuis. 3‑2 against MVV Maastricht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fedde de Jong 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.
Westerlo will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zulte Waregem were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Westerlo were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ponferradina is saying, and nobody at Zulte Waregem is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem 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 Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Zalán Átrok 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.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Heerenveen 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.
Reuven Niemeijer 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
At 21, Jevon Simons is already the best thing here
An average of 7.06 in a first team he is several years too young for. De Graafschap have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. De Graafschap will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Georginio Weghorst was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the De Graafschap dressing room was either.
“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 Zulte Waregem, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Lokeren-Temse for Siebe Van Keymolen 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zulte Waregem can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
Zulte Waregem asked and Antwerp said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitesse have kept their man, and De Graafschap go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Jevon Simons is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. De Graafschap will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at De Graafschap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at De Graafschap, another week without a signature from Daley Sinkgraven.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jannes Wieckhoff 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Georginio Weghorst after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 17‑0 against Jong Ajax, and it could have been more.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Jevon Simons, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.10, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1‑5 to Antwerp, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
17 goals in 16 games at De Graafschap — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zulte Waregem updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 goals in one match, Thomas Claes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zulte Waregem and Antwerp.
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 Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kelvin Neijenhuis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Louka Vanderbruggen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑1 against Breidablik, 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.
5 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.
7.47, 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.
Serxho Ujka 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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Jevon Simons’s exile
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1‑4 against Juventus. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Serxho Ujka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Yohei Takaoka will call it something else in private.
Jong PSV will want this one forgotten quickly: 10‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. De Graafschap were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Stijn Bultman, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 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.
7.77, 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.
Daley Sinkgraven 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between De Graafschap and Jong PSV, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 23 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.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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 Reuven Niemeijer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jong PSV in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kyano Kwint trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one De Graafschap will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Kiilerich 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.
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 Enrique Lofolomo is on it.
7 goals in 11 games at De Graafschap — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zulte Waregem updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wilguens Paugain trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cercle Brugge in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 Zulte Waregem that is a harder question to answer.
A brace, and Fedde de Jong takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fedde de Jong provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between De Graafschap and Jong AZ, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 23 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jannes Wieckhoff 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Levi Schoppema was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Enrique Lofolomo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Kiilerich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Junior Sambia
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Reuven Niemeijer 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.
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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Georginio Weghorst could afford to be generous.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Dordrecht.
The match ball belongs to Jevon Simons, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Fedde de Jong takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fedde de Jong provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
De Graafschap had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PSV, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
De Graafschap asked and Racing Genk 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 23 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sint-Truiden is saying, and nobody at De Graafschap is enjoying the guessing.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
$44.0K was the most the club would pay and Fortuna Sittard 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.
De Graafschap asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
13 new faces, and De Graafschap are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A loan enquiry to Racing Genk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Georginio Weghorst, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Joran Hardeman
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daley Sinkgraven is living that version at De Graafschap, and it tends to show in the first month.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $52.9K — a club that wants Jimte Scholten enough to be asked twice.
De Graafschap offered $49.0K; Heerenveen said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.