Marked for Nikolas Brandis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jismerai Dillema damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Tygo Land, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nikolas Brandis: 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.” Groningen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tygo Land and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Adams 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Che Adams
“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 terraces15 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorg Schreuders 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Vitesse, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Adams 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 terraces14 Dec 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.
Match13 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Che Adams’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Groningen.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.93 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Groningen had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Younes Taha 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.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Justin Xavi Simons, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad14 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Groningen lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Esmir Bajraktarević did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Etienne Vaessen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 goals in one match, Esmir Bajraktarević on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Groningen and Ajax.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ajax left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Groningen 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marvin Peersman, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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 Groningen know it.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Slavia Mozyr to sit and watch. I want to come back to Groningen and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marvin Peersman 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Groningen 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
No place for Wouter Prins in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Wouter Prins has his answer from Groningen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elvis van der Laan and Groningen agree another 4 years.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikolas Brandis
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Wouter Prins knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wouter Prins trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas van Noort
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Groningen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Feyenoord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 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 Justin Xavi Simons to a room that had heard them before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tygo Land named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Tygo Land is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Groningen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Brandis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Mats Seuntjens knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Groningen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mats Seuntjens’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Groningen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Adams 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Groningen know it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Tyrique Mercera asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes Rui Mendes a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Groningen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Groningen can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Groningen offered $3.3M; Utrecht 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.0K — a club that wants Jaygo van Ommeren enough to be asked twice.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Etienne Vaessen 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Groningen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Twente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Sven Bouland has come up in conversations Groningen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Groningen
7 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.