The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pepijn van de Merbel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Remco Balk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nick de Groot trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrew Imade’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Den Bosch needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 The request is on a desk at Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remco Balk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Den Bosch had all but put away. VVV-Venlo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Den Bosch deserved better, and so did he.
Pepijn van de Merbel 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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 João Pinto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Den Bosch will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Den Bosch, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Pepijn van de Merbel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Remco Balk 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Den Bosch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Remco Balk 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Den Bosch has been clear about where Mees Laros stands, which is more than many ever get.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
It needed Liam van Nistelrooij to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Jong Utrecht, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The offer from Real Sociedad for Mees Laros 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.
Den Bosch had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Den Bosch have gone to Vitesse with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitesse have kept their man, and Den Bosch go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Remco Balk 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.
Thijs van Leeuwen 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Den Bosch know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Liam van Nistelrooij is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Den Bosch is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rein Van Helden 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Remco Balk 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.
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.
Liam van Nistelrooij 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Den Bosch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remco Balk 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 watch every Den Bosch game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Eindhoven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑2 Luuk Lang left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Den Bosch, another week without a signature from Nick de Groot.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Liam van Nistelrooij did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 watch every Den Bosch game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Eindhoven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.