60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emmen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 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.
4 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.
Nelson Amadin 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 Siegert Baartmans 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emmen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Feyenoord is saying, and nobody at Emmen is enjoying the guessing.
Joep Kluskens 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.
Emmen ran out of time with AZ. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nelson Amadin 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.
Emmen asked and Volendam said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emmen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Emmen offered $1.9M; AZ said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Nelson Amadin 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 had been thinking. Joep Kluskens 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.
Emmen asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emmen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Roshon van Eijma has come up in conversations Emmen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Emmen have gone to Groningen 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.
Emmen asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Emmen have done the hard part with ADO Den Haag, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ajax is saying, and nobody at Emmen is enjoying the guessing.
Roshon van Eijma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Joep Kluskens 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.
Üzeyir Ergün damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ajax keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$6.4M was the most the club would pay and Heerenveen were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Emmen can pretend not to have heard.
Roshon van Eijma 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 Joep Kluskens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Emmen asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martijn Berden trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kennet Eichhorn 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Frenkie Lang after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.