Timon Wellenreuther 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang In-Beom 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 Feyenoord, and 4 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feyenoord they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feyenoord 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 Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sem Steijn 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Feyenoord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Empoli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Hwang In-Beom 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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Sem Steijn 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.
Add another name to the list: ADO Den Haag have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gaoussou Diarra. The answer from Feyenoord has not changed — yet.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 19 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feyenoord can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Feyenoord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Timon Wellenreuther 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 phone has started ringing about Jordan Bos again, and this time the name on the line is Heerenveen. Feyenoord are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang In-Beom 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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sem Steijn wants continental football; whether Feyenoord can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Hwang In-Beom 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.
“I did not go to Vitoria Guimaraes to sit and watch. I want to come back to Feyenoord and fight for my place.” 13 appearances in 45 matches say the rest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sem Steijn 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 watch every Feyenoord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vitoria Guimaraes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
5 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feyenoord know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sem Steijn wants continental football; whether Feyenoord can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Hwang In-Beom 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sem Steijn. 3‑1 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Ayase Ueda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roméo Garnier has just signed for Feyenoord, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sem Steijn 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 did not go to Vitoria Guimaraes to sit and watch. I want to come back to Feyenoord and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Givairo Read signs something — a contract at Feyenoord or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aymen Sliti did not need any: 9.19, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.34, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Hwang In-Beom 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.
“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 Feyenoord, and 4 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aymen Sliti did not need any: 8.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.21, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Hwang In-Beom 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.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sem Steijn 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aymen Sliti 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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
1‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 34 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Hwang In-Beom 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Leo Sauer 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Feyenoord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Timon Wellenreuther 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang In-Beom 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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feyenoord is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 goals in 31 games at Utrecht — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Feyenoord updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 142 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Izu Onunta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feyenoord the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feyenoord this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang In-Beom 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 Feyenoord, and 6 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feyenoord can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Feyenoord hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feyenoord they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Timon Wellenreuther 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Feyenoord training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hwang In-Beom 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.