A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Roda know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Roda has been clear about where Cain Seedorf stands, which is more than many ever get.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Roda will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jasper De Roon to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 The request is on a desk at Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Michael Breij takes the afternoon — 9.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michael Breij provided it, and the 9.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CF Montreal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kacper Potulski 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 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 Roda know it.
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kacper Potulski 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Justin Treichel 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.
Out, 1‑4 to PSV, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Piet Scobel takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Piet Scobel provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
A cup hiding at PSV leaves Roda explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda 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.
Something was said to Jay Kruiver and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Mainz 05 can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadiem Amiri 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. Mainz 05 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mainz 05, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Silvan Widmer has written the date down.
3 goals in 11 games at Sturm Graz — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Mainz 05 updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony van den Hurk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josh Nisbet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jong Ajax next, and one man in the Roda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Roda scored in the 109th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aland Abdi did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 had been thinking. Kacper Potulski 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.
FC Eindhoven left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jasper De Roon to a room that had heard them before.
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.
At 20 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.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kacper Potulski is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Tol 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul. 2‑1 against ADO Den Haag, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Roda 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jasper De Roon, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Roda is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Kacper Potulski, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Roda will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jasper De Roon chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Roda close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 8 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.
Kacper Potulski 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 Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roda asked and Dynamo Dresden 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Beerten trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KV Kortrijk have kept their man, and Roda 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 Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Dario Van Den Buijs’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Roda 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.