There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kai Jansen is living that version at Den Bosch, and it tends to show in the first month.
Teun van Grunsven 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mads Emil Madsen 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.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Fortuna Sittard kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Heerenveen will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Dylan Vente takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dylan Vente provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Ibrahim Cissoko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heerenveen have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Hristiyan Petrov 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Virgil De Ligt left the room before anybody could ask which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mitchel Bakker signs something — a contract at Heerenveen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Mitchel Bakker 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 David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Heerenveen will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutEser Gürbüz asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Heerenveen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dylan Vente 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.
MVV Maastricht paid $350.0K and Heerenveen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Zima 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
The offer from Feyenoord for Jacob Trenskow was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Zwolle this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maas Willemsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Maarten Paes 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.
17 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heerenveen told Dirk Proper something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jimte Scholten 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 Marcus Linday trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ringo Meerveld’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Min trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mitchel Bakker signs something — a contract at Heerenveen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 goals in 32 games at Helmond Sport — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Heerenveen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kai Jansen did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Junior Kadile 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Kévin Monzialo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Almere City and Jong PSV, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jamie Jacobs at his very best