Noah Naujoks 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.
Vitesse wanted more than $120.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
Excelsior asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Excelsior asked and AZ 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 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 8.45 — 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Excelsior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Humberto Montañez is living that version at Excelsior, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Excelsior know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Bounida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Excelsior 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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 Excelsior, 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayoub Oufkir. 1‑0 against PSV, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.26 — 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
Rayane Bounida 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.
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 Rayane Bounida is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Arnaut Dijks after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Excelsior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Excelsior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Excelsior scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rayane Bounida 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Excelsior did not have in the autumn.
Match25 Nov 2028
Yacqub Finey wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Yacqub Finey found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and ADO Den Haag went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Excelsior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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; Excelsior are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Rayane Bounida 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Yegoian 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Minute 86, against Twente, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
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.
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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Bounida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Ayoub Oufkir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Sampson Dweh 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 Rayane Bounida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Excelsior can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David van der Werff. 1‑0 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Excelsior has been clear about where Thom van Bergen stands, which is more than many ever get.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rayane Bounida provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Patati 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rayane Bounida. 3‑1 against Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rayane Bounida 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arnaut Dijks on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Patati 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.
Excelsior have gone to Vitesse with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Excelsior offered $360.0K; Vitesse 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.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Excelsior will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ayoub Oufkir has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Joeri Heerkens is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
Excelsior asked and AZ 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
David van der Werff 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ayoub Oufkir is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Excelsior, another week without a signature from Guilliano Cairo.
Position 6, 52 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Jordan Bos 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.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kevin Gadellaa has his answer from Utrecht; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Smits 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excelsior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 6 on 52 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.
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.
David van der Werff 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.
Minute 89, against Heerenveen, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Rayane Bounida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Yegoian 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Excelsior, and 9 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. David van der Werff scored in the 86th minute, AZ had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Excelsior took the lot.
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Excelsior have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
Thom van Bergen 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.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Ayoub Oufkir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Koen Jansen
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Thom van Bergen
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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.
Rayane Bounida 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian 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. Ayoub Oufkir 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“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.
Nobody at Utrecht will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Ajax top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Smits 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Utrecht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ajax in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 7.67 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Arnaut Dijks after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadEmre Ünüvar, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
0‑0 against Karpaty, 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Stijn van Gassel: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Rayane Bounida 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.
“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; Excelsior are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Mascareño is living that version at Excelsior, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
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.
Marked 6.49 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Luka Kulenović 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.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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.
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.
That is the business done at Excelsior 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
Excelsior asked and AZ 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 new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Excelsior will try not to make too much of it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arnaut Dijks after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Bounida did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Rayane Bounida 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 Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Yegoian 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.
Excelsior asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Three points for Excelsior, 2‑1 the final word against De Graafschap in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Ayoub Oufkir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. 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 new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Excelsior can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Excelsior know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Excelsior 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.
He is 22 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.
Groningen made Excelsior work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Ayoub Oufkir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
In brief
The dugoutGyan de Regt back under a manager who knows him
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Rayane Bounida, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 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.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Excelsior know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Bounida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David van der Werff 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.
At 21 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.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Yegoian 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.
He is 21 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.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
1‑0 against Lugano, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Luka Kulenović was at the centre of the description.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Bounida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Valentin Sulzbacher 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
David van der Werff 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rayane Bounida. 1‑0 against Cambuur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
4‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Rayane Bounida, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rayane Bounida 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.
Marked 9.36 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
In brief
The dugoutGyan de Regt back under a manager who knows him
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Calvin Raatsie: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Ayoub Oufkir 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.
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Bounida 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.
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.
0‑0 against Lech, 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.
6 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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Noah Naujoks delivers — 7.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Noah Naujoks scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Rayane Bounida 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Excelsior pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
4 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.
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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Rayane Bounida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Yegoian 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 new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Excelsior told Ayoub Oufkir something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Roda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑0 against Lugano, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Denso Kasius was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excelsior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Siyabonga Ngezana has just signed for Excelsior, and for once the answer mattered.
Rayane Bounida 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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Excelsior has worked with Gyan de Regt before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excelsior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Oxford United for Emre Ünüvar 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Bounida did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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 words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Excelsior had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Excelsior 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Ayoub Oufkir has come up in conversations Utrecht were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ayoub Oufkir trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan-José Perea signs something — a contract at Utrecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zwolle in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Wout Dost has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Utrecht, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Utrecht know it.
The phone has started ringing about Michael Brouwer again, and this time the name on the line is Heerenveen. Utrecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
10 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.
“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 shaken hands with Groningen; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Jordan Bos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Alarcón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Utrecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Alarcón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Paredes knocks on the manager’s door
Vasilis Barkas 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 May 2027
Ángel Alarcón 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.
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
7 new faces, and Utrecht 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.
Utrecht have made Ángel Alarcón available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market31 May 2027
Ángel Alarcón returns from a loan that gave him nothing
1 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
“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 Utrecht will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Something was said to Artem Stepanov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Utrecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heerenveen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Utrecht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Joris van Overeem has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Zidane Iqbal’s exile
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Stepanov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“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 1 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Ajax next, and one man in the Utrecht dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Utrecht will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jordan Bos 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcos Leonardo. 2‑0 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Utrecht pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.” Marten Aké kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.