The clubs have shaken hands with Go Ahead Eagles; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Utrecht people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Utrecht can pretend not to have heard.
Jerry St. Juste and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaygo van Ommeren 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. RKC Waalwijk have kept their man, and Utrecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
13 goals in 20 games at RKC Waalwijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Utrecht updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Utrecht can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Utrecht is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yannick Leliendal scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Utrecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jerry St. Juste 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.
Add another name to the list: De Graafschap have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wessel Kooy. The answer from Utrecht has not changed — yet.
Three points for Utrecht, 3‑1 the final word against NEC in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaygo van Ommeren 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Utrecht they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Dani de Wit and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaygo van Ommeren 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Utrecht told Tobias Lauritsen 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 Utrecht, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thijs Kraaijeveld will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feyenoord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feyenoord have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Mason Greenwood and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raheem Sterling 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luciano Valente. 3‑1 against Volendam, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2‑2 against Red Bull Salzburg, 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niklas Vesterlund will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Utrecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jerry St. Juste 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 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Utrecht, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niklas Vesterlund will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Utrecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jerry St. Juste 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 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Utrecht told David Min something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Feyenoord ran out of time with AZ. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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 Feyenoord, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 43 gone
That is the business done at Feyenoord until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Feyenoord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Justin Eversen is living that version at Feyenoord, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raheem Sterling 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 phone has started ringing about Aymen Sliti again, and this time the name on the line is FC Eindhoven. Feyenoord are listening politely and promising nothing.
21 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and FC Eindhoven were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Add another name to the list: NK Osijek have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oualid Agougil. The answer from Jong Utrecht has not changed — yet.
“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 Jong Utrecht know it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gustav Arcos Sundqvist 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jaygo van Ommeren and Jong Utrecht agree another 4 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Klaassen after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Justin Eversen has his answer from Jong Utrecht; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Matyáš Havelka 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 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 Jong Utrecht will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Owen Klaassen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Jong Utrecht dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Roda? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 20 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jong Utrecht can tell you which week it ends in.
At 19 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Klaassen after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Jong Utrecht 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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
“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; Utrecht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
“I watch every Utrecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Go Ahead Eagles runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.