A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Go Ahead Eagles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eldon Esievo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Go Ahead Eagles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Go Ahead Eagles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luka Savić is living that version at Go Ahead Eagles, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Fortuna Sittard had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
He is 18, and nobody at Go Ahead Eagles signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
It needed Alexander Gurendal to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Fortuna Sittard, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
NEC go through and Go Ahead Eagles go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Go Ahead Eagles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Go Ahead Eagles are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
A first appearance Quincy Timber will want to forget — 5.68
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.68, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Go Ahead Eagles 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 Dean James was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Go Ahead Eagles, another week without a signature from Jaden de Guzmán.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jaden de Guzmán 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.
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match20 Oct 2035
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Go Ahead Eagles and AZ in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauricio Medina has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Go Ahead Eagles 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 Dean James was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Go Ahead Eagles are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $46.3K of what Go Ahead Eagles paid for Lévi Ntumba is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Go Ahead Eagles and PSV have settled on $380.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 30 gone
That is the business done at Go Ahead Eagles until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Steven De Vrij has just signed for Go Ahead Eagles, and for once the answer mattered.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Giovanni D'Agostino has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Go Ahead Eagles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Go Ahead Eagles 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 Go Ahead Eagles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The deal with Utrecht 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.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Ajax 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
“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 Go Ahead Eagles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jaden de Guzmán 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.
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.
Go Ahead Eagles have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Go Ahead Eagles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Go Ahead Eagles can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Groningen 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Groningen have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Go Ahead Eagles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jaden de Guzmán 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. Dean James 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 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 Go Ahead Eagles know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Go Ahead Eagles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Go Ahead Eagles have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Groningen 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Figo Frissen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Go Ahead Eagles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Go Ahead Eagles have done the hard part with Ajax, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Jaden de Guzmán 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 Jun 2035
Dean James 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 goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Julen Lobete scored in the 86th minute, Jong PSV had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Go Ahead Eagles took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Go Ahead Eagles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jaden de Guzmán 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.
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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Speelman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Go Ahead Eagles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaden de Guzmán 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Dean James 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.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
9 new faces, and Go Ahead Eagles are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Go Ahead Eagles are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jaden de Guzmán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Go Ahead Eagles can pretend not to have heard.
The bid was some way short and Go Ahead Eagles did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings12 Feb 2035
A brace, and Julen Lobete takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julen Lobete provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Go Ahead Eagles is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Eldon Esievo has, at Go Ahead Eagles, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal that would have taken Joep Willems to TOP Oss has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Go Ahead Eagles with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Jurgen Ekkelenkamp 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.
“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; Go Ahead Eagles are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around UTA Arad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eldon Esievo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from CSC Dumbrăvița for Archie Harris 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dennis Politic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Julian Junuzovic has come up in conversations UTA Arad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
UTA Arad asked and Hannover 96 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UTA Arad can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Archie Harris will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. UTA Arad have done the hard part with Hannover 96, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dennis Politic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonathan Fontana 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 name of Oscar Meedom has come up in conversations UTA Arad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UTA Arad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tshiamo Masisi 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.
41 games and 6 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad29 May 2034
Words at UTA Arad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jibril Othman 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 Martin Bley trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at UTA Arad 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 UTA Arad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Norgaard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UTA Arad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at UTA Arad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UTA Arad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UTA Arad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tshiamo Masisi, and the manager let it.
Squad8 May 2034
Jibril Othman 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UTA Arad, another week without a signature from Eldon Esievo.
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 Niilo Siren is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at UTA Arad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UTA Arad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UTA Arad can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tshiamo Masisi 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 Dennis Politic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UTA Arad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UTA Arad can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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; UTA Arad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at UTA Arad 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Archie Harris will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UTA Arad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Words at UTA Arad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Politic 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.
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 Niilo Siren is on it.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UTA Arad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eldon Esievo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tshiamo Masisi 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.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Words at UTA Arad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Politic 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UTA Arad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jarell Paisley has written the date down.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UTA Arad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” UTA Arad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Norgaard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at UTA Arad, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at UTA Arad 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Martin Bley’s exile
MarketThe clock does Eldon Esievo’s negotiating for him
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UTA Arad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 7 on 44 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UTA Arad can pretend not to have heard.
Dennis Politic 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 Lekan Sule Quadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Ovidiu Deac
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around UTA Arad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eldon Esievo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CS Afumați moved on, Niilo Siren reports back to UTA Arad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 UTA Arad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Bucharest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
$19.0K on the table at Hermannstadt. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.