Marked for Nikolas Brandis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Groningen say no — this time
The offer from Ferencvaros for Thijmen Blokzijl 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Mats Seuntjens yet — 7.89
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mats Seuntjens 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Stije Resink 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Etienne Vaessen
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Zwolle leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Groningen have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Rui Mendes
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 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 Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stije Resink 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.31 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Groningen had the best player on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
No place for Sven Bouland in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sven Bouland has his answer from Groningen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Stije Resink wants to know where this is going
“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 Groningen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mats Seuntjens commits to Groningen for another 1 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mats Seuntjens 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Stije Resink 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Etienne Vaessen’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.