From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom17 May 2027
AZ are in Europe
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad17 May 2027
Kasper Boogaard: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateo Chávez commits to AZ for another 5 years.
Loan watch17 May 2027
“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 AZ, and 10 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
Market17 May 2027
Kees Smit linked with a move away
The name of Kees Smit keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AZ say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad17 May 2027
Mateo Chávez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch17 May 2027
19 appearances at Bolton Wanderers and the goals keep coming. AZ are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch17 May 2027
34 appearances away from home and 0 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch17 May 2027
13 starts and a season average of 6.51. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
In brief
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Squad
The manager comes out for Jordy Clasie
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Boardroom
The AZ board put their names to it
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
Hobie Verhulst: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 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.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jordy Clasie knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Apr 2027
The Kees Smit talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
18 appearances at Bolton Wanderers and the goals keep coming. AZ are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Mar 2027
Still nobody has beaten AZ
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Troy Parrott
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Three points for AZ, 2-1 the final word against Excelsior in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match20 Mar 2027
Three points for AZ, 2-1 the final word against Mlada Boleslav in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
Squad22 Mar 2027
4 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad22 Mar 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 AZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Mar 2027
The Kees Smit talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad22 Mar 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. AZ have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Peer Koopmeiners
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Boardroom
AZ board back the manager
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The terraces
The stand has a song for Patati
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A one-man rearguard from Maarten Paes
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match20 Feb 2027
8 unbeaten for AZ
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation AZ did not have in the autumn.
Match20 Feb 2027
AZ find a way past Roda
Roda made AZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 1-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match19 Feb 2027
Three points for AZ, 1-0 the final word against Rukh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Feb 2027
No place for Matěj Šín on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AZ pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
6 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
The Kees Smit talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
Jizz Hornkamp has left for Twente in a $4.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AZ will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Kees Smit knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match23 Jan 2027
1-1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Kees Smit talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Dec 2026
26 unbeaten for AZ
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 26 matches without defeat is a foundation AZ did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Maarten Paes
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market28 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Match26 Dec 2026
AZ and PSV 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Isak Jensen 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
The Kees Smit talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Willem II come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
Ajax pay $7.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AZ have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for AZ, 2-1 the final word against Vitesse in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elijah Dijkstra commits to AZ for another 5 years.
Market17 Aug 2026
Groningen are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. AZ will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.