Marked for Keanu Van Mieghem
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
8 matches without a win for Roda
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Roda are no longer polite ones.
Market27 Sep 2027
Joey Müller 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 Roda can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Keanu Van Mieghem is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Roda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Treichel 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
A bad afternoon for Roda against Zwolle
0‑2 to Zwolle, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Anger at Roda spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match14 Aug 2027
No mercy from Roda
De Graafschap will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Roda were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Esmir Bajraktarević takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Esmir Bajraktarević provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market16 Aug 2027
Filip Janssen 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 Roda can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Roda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Roda
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Roda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Déom 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 May 2027
Roda are in real trouble now
Position 18, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market10 May 2027
“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 dugout10 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Jérôme Déom 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Jérôme Déom 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.
Market10 May 2027
Roda have made Rico Speksnijder available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout10 May 2027
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 Keanu Van Mieghem has written the date down.
Squad10 May 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jérôme Déom 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Roda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Roda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market19 Apr 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Andrew Imade may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Questions about Noan Géraux on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Word from the training ground: Koen Jansen
The sharpest man in every session this week, by all accounts. Lines like this run the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Roda
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Roda are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Justin Treichel is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs 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 Oct 2026
Words at Roda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Beerten 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
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Roda
Something was said to Esmir Bajraktarević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Pele van Anholt has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Roda.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Sep 2026
Roda bow out of the cup
Cambuur go through and Roda go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Esmir Bajraktarević did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Roda
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Roda
Dario Van Den Buijs 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Esmir Bajraktarević 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Roda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joey Müller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 48 days on the sidelines for Keanu Van Mieghem, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Josh Nisbet 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.