Marked for Mathijs Menu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Hobie Verhulst 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
RKC Waalwijk left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at VVV-Venlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Lelieveld 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
“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 VVV-Venlo, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Cody Dijks to a room that had heard them before.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and VVV-Venlo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Dec 2027
Milan Hendericks damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
The dugout27 Dec 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to VVV-Venlo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at VVV-Venlo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VVV-Venlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at VVV-Venlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorg Schreuders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
A bad afternoon for VVV-Venlo against Emmen
0‑1 to Emmen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathijs Menu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Gijs Smal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Jorg Schreuders 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.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Fortuna Sittard to sit and watch. I want to come back to VVV-Venlo and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Mathijs Menu
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cody Dijks was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the VVV-Venlo dressing room was either.
Looking ahead25 Oct 2027
VVV-Venlo take on the side everybody is chasing
De Graafschap arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The plan did not have a place for Björn van Zijl
Nobody at VVV-Venlo is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Match23 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. FC Eindhoven will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 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 VVV-Venlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 18 in, 19 out at VVV-Venlo
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at VVV-Venlo
Gijs Smal 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elias el Asri is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at VVV-Venlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorg Schreuders 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“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 VVV-Venlo, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathijs Menu, and the manager let it.
Market6 Sep 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at VVV-Venlo, another week without a signature from Nassim Aït Mouhou.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Thijs Kraaijeveld 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
0‑1 to RKC Waalwijk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Lasse Wehmeyer 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at VVV-Venlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Mathijs Menu
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at VVV-Venlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorg Schreuders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Dean Zandbergen 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathijs Menu, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Half-satisfied: Cody Dijks on the draw
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Luuk Verheij dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
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 David Dailoski is on it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Mathijs Menu: “I am not a substitute”
“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 VVV-Venlo will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market12 Apr 2027
The name of Luuk Verheij keeps appearing in other people's back pages. VVV-Venlo say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Michael Davis: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VVV-Venlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Hobie Verhulst and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 20 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at VVV-Venlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorg Schreuders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dean Zandbergen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to VVV-Venlo.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nassim Aït Mouhou commits to VVV-Venlo for another 4 years.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A mark of 7.81, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Cody Dijks kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” VVV-Venlo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Kyano Kwint, 20, steals the show — 7.68
Marked 7.68 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match13 Feb 2027
VVV-Venlo make home a hard place to visit
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Dean Zandbergen 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon VVV-Venlo had all but put away. Helmond Sport will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at VVV-Venlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lasse Wehmeyer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Noé Lebreton has had enough of the bench
“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 VVV-Venlo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Navarone Foor, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Oct 2026
VVV-Venlo through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Go Ahead Eagles, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hobie Verhulst and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lasse Wehmeyer 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.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabin Blancquart 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniël Deen
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.91 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, VVV-Venlo had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. VVV-Venlo had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cody Dijks was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the VVV-Venlo dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for VVV-Venlo
0‑5 against Willem II, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $320.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AZ drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dean Zandbergen 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at VVV-Venlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lasse Wehmeyer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
VVV-Venlo asked and Zulte Waregem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Luuk Verheij gets it from the manager
“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.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Cody Dijks to a room that had heard them before.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 3 saves does not settle it either way.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Jong AZ say no — this time
The offer from Minyor Pernik for Andrea Natali 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Jong AZ have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Guus Klaassen to a room that had heard them before.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hessel de Wit 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The pass was always on for Julian Oerip
Chances created: 7. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Competition arrives for Kiani Inge
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Jong AZ have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mathijs Menu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Jong AZ
Andrea Natali 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 dugout17 Aug 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 0‑2 Guus Klaassen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Jong AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Latrell Aken 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.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VVV-Venlo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kiani Inge makes his debut at 19
At 19 years old, Kiani Inge became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.