Moussa Wagué damages knee ligaments — 150 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 150 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Willem II next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
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Yousri Sbai 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.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heerenveen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heerenveen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
RKC Waalwijk will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Heerenveen were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The terraces3 Oct 2033
The mood at Heerenveen has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrea Carboni scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
7.67, 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Maarten Paes 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 Otto Rosengren 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 Beltinci can pretend not to have heard.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and NK Krka had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Beltinci did not stop to explain themselves.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beltinci 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: Oktaj Rakipi. 3‑2 against NK Krka, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Beltinci know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Maribor have kept their man, and Beltinci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Beltinci, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Kovačević provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with NK Maribor is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.98, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
6 goals in one match, Luka Kovačević on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Beltinci and Bistrica.
“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 Beltinci know it.