The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bohdan Budko did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Jong AZ know it.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Guus Klaassen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutRion Ichihara knocks on the manager's door
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 6.89, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Bohdan Budko 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.
“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.
The dugout13 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Guus Klaassen to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Jong AZ will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Wesley Hoedt 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jur Schipper is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rion Ichihara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jong PSV in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kiani Inge signs something — a contract at Jong AZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Jong AZ. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Jong AZ opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Jasper Hartog stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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 Jong AZ know it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kasper Boogaard’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jong AZ needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kiani Inge signs something — a contract at Jong AZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Jasper Hartog 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jong AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong AZ can pretend not to have heard.
Rion Ichihara 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.
8 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kiani Inge trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jong AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Bournemouth for Saviola Simons 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong AZ can pretend not to have heard.
6 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NAC Breda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jong AZ people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Jur Schipper 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.
Julian Sijbrands has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 22 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rion Ichihara signs something — a contract at Jong AZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Jong AZ was different afterwards.
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julian Oerip. 1‑0 against Cambuur, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Guus Klaassen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong AZ will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 8 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tómas Johannessen did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Jur Schipper 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Jong AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hessel de Wit 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 20 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.
The dugout22 Feb 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 1‑3 Guus Klaassen left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
0‑3 against ADO Den Haag, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tómas Johannessen is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Position 17, 10 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Hessel de Wit
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hessel de Wit has come out of that comparison in the side, and Jong AZ have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 Jong AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hessel de Wit 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Julian Oerip 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 18 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
At 19 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 Hessel de Wit was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Toppenberg provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Hessel de Wit takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hessel de Wit provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Kiani Inge, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jong Utrecht were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hessel de Wit 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.
At 21 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.
Hessel de Wit 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kiani Inge's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A side in position 16 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Jong AZ and De Graafschap, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Words at Jong AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hessel de Wit 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Guus Klaassen after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Kiani Inge 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.
The phone has started ringing about Hessel de Wit again, and this time the name on the line is Volendam. Jong AZ are listening politely and promising nothing.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Roda scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Guus Klaassen after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Jong AZ have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The offer from Minyor Pernik for Andrea Natali 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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Jong AZ have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Guus Klaassen to a room that had heard them before.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hessel de Wit 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.
Successful dribbles: 10. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Jong AZ have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Andrea Natali 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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 0‑2 Guus Klaassen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Jong AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Latrell Aken 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VVV-Venlo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.