Marked for Mark Hoekstra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑5 by Ajax, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match12 Sep 2029
The small margins put Excelsior out
Out, 0‑1 to De Graafschap, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market17 Sep 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Nikolai Rehnen: 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.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match15 Sep 2029
4 matches without a win for Excelsior
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yacqub Finey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Sep 2029
Excelsior cannot find the net
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Akron waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Excelsior is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market3 Sep 2029
Kian Visser hands in a written request
“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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Excelsior asked and Twente 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 dugout3 Sep 2029
“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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Excelsior close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 24 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad3 Sep 2029
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Bas Malen, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacqub Finey 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Excelsior
José De Almeida Reis 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yacqub Finey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
José De Almeida Reis 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 Jul 2029
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Feyenoord: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
A promise honoured at Excelsior
Something was said to Mark Hoekstra and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emiliano González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Apr 2029
“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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacqub Finey 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Excelsior
José De Almeida Reis 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
10 new faces, and Excelsior 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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lennard Hartjes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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 dugout9 Apr 2029
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nikolai Rehnen has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ryan De Vrij has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market2 Apr 2029
“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.
Match2 Apr 2029
Excelsior finish in position 12
32 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match31 Mar 2029
8 matches without a win for Excelsior
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Excelsior
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Excelsior is running low.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Yacqub Finey 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
José De Almeida Reis 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.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Mark Hoekstra did the work nobody counts — 6.87
12 combined actions and 6.87. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match10 Mar 2029
No end in sight to Excelsior's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Excelsior has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Mar 2029
Excelsior cannot find the net
5 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacqub Finey 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 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Excelsior
José De Almeida Reis 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Too much change too quickly at Excelsior
12 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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Excelsior's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Excelsior has to find a result from somewhere.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Market29 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bashan Enoh commits to Excelsior for another 5 years.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ryan De Vrij after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Hoekstra 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Willem II; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match6 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Excelsior's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Excelsior has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 Jan 2029
Excelsior cannot find the net
6 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.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Gyan de Regt beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A move Pedrito would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pedrito is living that version at Excelsior, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Yacqub Finey in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Hoekstra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Ajax: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Dec 2028
Yacqub Finey hands in a written request
“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.
Match23 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Excelsior
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Match23 Dec 2028
4 matches without a goal for Excelsior
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Nikolai Rehnen 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Excelsior
Yacqub Finey 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dean IJssel de Schepper, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lennard Hartjes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Excelsior's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Excelsior has to find a result from somewhere.
Match29 Jan 2028
Nowhere to hide for Excelsior
0‑3 against Heracles, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match29 Jan 2028
9 matches without a goal for Excelsior
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market31 Jan 2028
Gyan de Regt hands in a written request
“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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Groningen come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Excelsior did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zwolle waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Excelsior is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jerolldino Bergraaf has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jan 2028
Roda come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Groningen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match29 Jan 2028
Whatever happens, Groningen do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Jan 2028
18 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Etienne Vaessen has given nobody the chance.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mark Hoekstra has agreed terms with Excelsior for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jerolldino Bergraaf has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Groningen have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Groningen asked and Excelsior said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Looking ahead31 Jan 2028
The big one: PSV come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Groningen will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
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