Marked for Dean IJssel de Schepper
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Aug 2029
No end in sight to Excelsior's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Excelsior has to find a result from somewhere.
Market20 Aug 2029
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.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Everything was agreed with PSV and then the doctor spoke. Excelsior have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
The deal with Utrecht is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
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 dugout20 Aug 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad20 Aug 2029
Tije Vos 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.
Squad20 Aug 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.
Market20 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Excelsior have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
In brief
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Match
Excelsior come up short against Feyenoord
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Market
Cambuur are about to pick up the phone
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Excelsior
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market25 Jun 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Excelsior and Utrecht have settled on $540.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad25 Jun 2029
The step up is real for Bashan Enoh
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Lennard Hartjes has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad25 Jun 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Ajax have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 May 2029
40 days out for Jort Roovers after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Excelsior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 May 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.
Squad14 May 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.
Squad14 May 2029
José De Almeida Reis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolai Rehnen, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José De Almeida Reis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad14 May 2029
Bashan Enoh wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Excelsior will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market14 May 2029
“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 Lamine Kaba.
Market14 May 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mika Luijendijk may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 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.
Match17 Mar 2029
6 matches without a win for Excelsior
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Mar 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
José De Almeida Reis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Bashan Enoh 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.
Match17 Mar 2029
Excelsior and AZ take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ryan De Vrij was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Excelsior dressing room was either.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 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.
Match3 Mar 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stijn van Gassel commits to Excelsior for another 2 years.
Match3 Mar 2029
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.
Squad5 Mar 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Nikolai Rehnen
“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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stan Henderikx was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market5 Mar 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2029
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.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Fredy gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fredy has just signed for Excelsior, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad19 Feb 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.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Excelsior asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Feb 2029
José De Almeida Reis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Fredy signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fredy commits to Excelsior for another 3 years.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“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.
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
Steady
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Excelsior close the window on a squad of their own making
19 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
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.
Market4 Sep 2028
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nesto Groen reports back to Excelsior with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Özgür Aktaş 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Excelsior
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mika Luijendijk and Excelsior agree another 4 years.
Market4 Sep 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Excelsior scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Excelsior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Aug 2028
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Zach Booth reports back to Excelsior with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kayden Wolff is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Excelsior
Özgür Aktaş 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Still no name above the door at Excelsior
Day 12 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Excelsior asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
The knee: Özgür Aktaş out for 66 days
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Excelsior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Willem II waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Excelsior is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 dugout3 Jul 2028
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Squad3 Jul 2028
Özgür Aktaş 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
Heerenveen paid $330.0K and Excelsior took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Irakli Yegoian 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
7 new boys at the Excelsior academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The dugout3 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 May 2028
“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.
Market15 May 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gyan de Regt 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Zach Booth and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 dugout15 May 2028
Stan Henderikx 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.
Market15 May 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market15 May 2028
Excelsior have made Nesto Groen available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad15 May 2028
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Excelsior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout8 May 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
A row about effort at Excelsior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gyan de Regt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Excelsior
Zach Booth 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 dugout8 May 2028
Casper Widell asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout8 May 2028
Jort Roovers 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.
Market8 May 2028
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Excelsior could get for him.
The dugout8 May 2028
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 José De Almeida Reis is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Mar 2028
The drought breaks for Excelsior
20 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cambuur were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jerolldino Bergraaf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Excelsior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout13 Mar 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gyan de Regt 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Excelsior
Zach Booth 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gyan de Regt’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Excelsior.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.