Marked for Benjamin Nagel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 19 in, 7 out at Telstar
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Nagel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Tim van der Leij, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Telstar
Tim van der Leij 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Javi Muñoz 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market6 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tyrone Owusu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Telstar.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nick Homan, and the manager let it.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tyrese Noslin breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Telstar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Telstar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Telstar
Tim van der Leij and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Aug 2027
Telstar cannot find the net
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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Everton have kept their man, and Telstar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match28 Aug 2027
Telstar come up short against PSV
PSV left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Yanick van Osch
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Telstar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kjetil Borry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The offer went to Standard Liege 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with PSV; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Market30 Aug 2027
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Giacomo Raspadori is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Market30 Aug 2027
The fee is $470.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Den Bosch drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Twente
Giacomo Raspadori 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Nick de Groot gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nick de Groot has just signed for Twente, and for once the answer mattered.
Market30 Aug 2027
Benjamin Nagel has left for Telstar in a $760.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Nagel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Jun 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: PSV will make the call about Bart van Rooij this week. Twente have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
34 appearances at Heracles and the goals keep coming. Twente are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amin Soultana and Twente agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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 Bart van Rooij is on it.
Market21 Jun 2027
The Daan Rots story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daan Rots signs something — a contract at Twente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Mar 2027
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Myron Boadu takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myron Boadu provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ricky van Wolfswinkel provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Twente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Nagel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 Mar 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Go Ahead Eagles tried to reorganise, Twente did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Naci Ünüvar’s exile
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The dugout
Daouda Weidmann gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Dec 2026
Twente through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Heracles, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑3 to Telstar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match16 Dec 2026
Filip Thorvaldsen wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Filip Thorvaldsen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Heracles went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Filip Thorvaldsen at 20 — 8.40
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Filip Thorvaldsen did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market21 Dec 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Twente
Wout Weghorst and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Bart van Rooij 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 terraces21 Dec 2026
He is 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Wout Weghorst, 34, rolls back the years — 8.15
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Sep 2026
Twente cannot stop winning
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Twente
Wout Weghorst 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 18 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Zwolle made Twente work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stav Lemkin, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Twente
11 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Tim Gakpo could afford to be generous.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Utrecht next, and one man in the Twente dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
No mercy from Twente
Fortuna Sittard will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Twente were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market31 Aug 2026
Max Bruns hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Twente can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
Twente get their man
The chase for Naoufal Bannis ended with $1.7M changing hands and Vitesse out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.