Position 2, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Dies Janse 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
David Kalokoh 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.
Something was said to Avery Appiah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ethan Butera had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The bid was some way short and Jong Ajax did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Pharell Nash, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.84 beside his name.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Jong Ajax hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Jong Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Don-Angelo Konadu 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Emmen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Jan Faberski scored in the 88th minute, Den Bosch had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Jong Ajax took the lot.
“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 Jong Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Pharell Nash, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Add another name to the list: FC Eindhoven have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdellah Ouazane. The answer from Jong Ajax has not changed — yet.
1 for Dies Janse, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Oliver Edvardsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Jong Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Don-Angelo Konadu 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.
“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 Jong Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Antoine Makoumbou 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 Don-Angelo Konadu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Jong Ajax will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Antoine Makoumbou 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pharell Nash has his answer from Jong Ajax; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Half the programme played, position 2, 38 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
8 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.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and MVV Maastricht had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Ajax did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pharell Nash did not need any: 8.57, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Théo Hernández 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.
7 goals in one match, Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ajax and TOP Oss.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 128 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The first defeat in 20 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Telstar; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Théo Hernández 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arnaut Malen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arnaut Malen has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ajax lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
78 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
34 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Ajax now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ajax lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ajax had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 23 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Kenneth Taylor 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.
Nobody at Ajax will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
8 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Joeri Heerkens has been having a lot of them.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 53 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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 Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Wout De Vrij to a room that had heard them before.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against ADO Den Haag; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout8 May 2028
Dies Janse is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Ajax will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kayden Wolff is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutPharell Nash has become a man the manager trusts
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jong Ajax can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gastón Ávila 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.
He is 22 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. De Graafschap tried to reorganise, Jong Ajax did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Dies Janse was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Don-Angelo Konadu provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pharell Nash did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Dies Janse 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Don-Angelo Konadu. 2‑0 against FC Eindhoven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Wout De Vrij could afford to be generous.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kayden Wolff is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Don-Angelo Konadu signs something — a contract at Jong Ajax or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Kayden Wolff, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.45
A mark of 9.45 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.21, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Dies Janse 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Jong Ajax and Den Bosch, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kayden Wolff 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zakaria Ouazane and Jong Ajax agree another 5 years.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.” Wout De Vrij kept it short after the 4‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Kalokoh. 2‑1 against Helmond Sport, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 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.
2-1, and a corner of somebody else's ground that made more noise than the rest of it put together. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them ever mentions it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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.” Wout De Vrij, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wout De Vrij after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Ajax 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Jong Ajax that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Jong PSV on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Jong Ajax told Tristan Gooijer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Jong Ajax will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pharell Nash signs something — a contract at Jong Ajax or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Jong Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Jong Ajax know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wout De Vrij after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Gastón Ávila 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.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Jong Ajax know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jong Ajax, another week without a signature from Tristan Gooijer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Roda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A brace, and David Kalokoh takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Kalokoh provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Avery Appiah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Jong Ajax heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jong Ajax can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A mark of 9.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Dies Janse 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Jong AZ spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Shots: 25, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.” Wout De Vrij kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
7.60, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Jong Ajax know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wout De Vrij on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zakaria Ouazane is on it.
Dies Janse 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Kalokoh 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Kalokoh. 1‑0 against Dordrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wout De Vrij on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jong Ajax, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Jong Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Don O'Niel 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.
In brief
Player ratingsPharell Nash beats them one at a time
“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 Jong Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pharell Nash did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pharell Nash had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Vitesse for Julian Rijkhoff 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
At 19, Pharell Nash is already the best thing here
An average of 7.12 in a first team he is several years too young for. Jong Ajax have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Kayden Wolff 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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 1‑4 Wout De Vrij left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Kalokoh asks for a word with the manager
SquadWords at Jong Ajax training over how hard people work
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Zakaria Ouazane, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.33
A mark of 8.33 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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 Jong Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julian Rijkhoff. 3‑2 against TOP Oss, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Wout De Vrij could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Almere City will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Jong Ajax were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pharell Nash did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The phone has started ringing about Josip Šutalo again, and this time the name on the line is AZ. Jong Ajax are listening politely and promising nothing.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Ethan Butera 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jong Ajax has been clear about where Julian Rijkhoff stands, which is more than many ever get.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Julian Rijkhoff 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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 25 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Ethan Butera
Pharell Nash, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
At 19, Pharell Nash is already the best thing here
An average of 7.07 in a first team he is several years too young for. Jong Ajax have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wout De Vrij after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Jong Ajax will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Jong Ajax that is a harder question to answer.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Jong Ajax scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Ethan Butera, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and FC Eindhoven were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.67, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Wout De Vrij, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pharell Nash, 19, 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 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jong Ajax can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
He is 19 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Something was said to Tristan Gooijer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kayden Wolff is on it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Jong Ajax have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutGerald Alders wants a proper job in this side
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 Ajax 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 Don O'Niel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roda next, and one man in the Jong Ajax dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“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 Ajax will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dies Janse has come out of that comparison in the side, and Jong Ajax have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wout De Vrij after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Ajax will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 10 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jong Ajax is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Jong Ajax and Jong AZ, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 7.06 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout25 Oct 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 2‑4 Wout De Vrij left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Josip Šutalo
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Kalokoh 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.
Kayden Wolff 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jong Ajax is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 22 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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Don O'Niel 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” FC Eindhoven had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Hamrun Spartans for Pharell Nash 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 phone has started ringing about Julian Rijkhoff again, and this time the name on the line is Vitesse. Jong Ajax are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Ajax will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Avery Appiah is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Pharell Nash
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pharell Nash has come out of that comparison in the side, and Jong Ajax have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Jong Ajax will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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 Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
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 Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Jong Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Rosa 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: Maher Carrizo. 3‑1 against Vitesse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 19 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wout De Vrij on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jong Ajax, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Paul Reverson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Jong Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jong Ajax, another week without a signature from Jan Faberski.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paul Reverson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Maher Carrizo wants continental football; whether Jong Ajax can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jan Faberski 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 Lucas Rosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
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 Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Kalokoh, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Lucas Rosa 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 Jong Ajax has been clear about where Don-Angelo Konadu stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jong Ajax, another week without a signature from Maher Carrizo.
“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 Ajax will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josip Šutalo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Marco Tol 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 Anthony van den Hurk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout5 Apr 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jasper Strootman to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.