Marked for Beer Bouvy
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Everything agreed with Heerenveen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Furkan Ulutaş has agreed terms with Twente for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad6 Aug 2029
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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Roda
Marco Tol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Anton Gaaei 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 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Roda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Roda are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Roda 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.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Seb Huntelaar is in the works
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Boardroom
Roda bank $566.7K from an old deal
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The dugout
No hiding place for Beer Bouvy
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jun 2029
The unthinkable, invoiced: Sami Bouhoudane sold
PSV arrived with $34.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces18 Jun 2029
Supporters organise against the Roda board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market18 Jun 2029
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yoël van den Ban had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces18 Jun 2029
Sami Bouhoudane has gone, the accounts have $34.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A move Dylan van Houten would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dylan van Houten is living that version at Roda, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market18 Jun 2029
Stijn Meijer 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 Roda can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Beer Bouvy says Roda went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Apr 2029
Every point is an argument now for Roda
Position 17 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market30 Apr 2029
“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.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Pressure builds in the Roda boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Roda
Sami Bouhoudane 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 Apr 2029
Anton Gaaei 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 dugout30 Apr 2029
Memphis De Vrij has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Roda 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 terraces30 Apr 2029
Supporters make their feelings known about Sami Bouhoudane
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Roda would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager makes Beer Bouvy a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Roda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Stijn Meijer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Roda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Jan 2029
Anger at Roda spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match30 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Roda's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Roda has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Jan 2029
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Roda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 2-goal lead gone for Roda
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Heracles kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Roda will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Marked 7.84 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Roda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Roda have done the hard part with Ajax, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Roda
Anton Gaaei 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Beer Bouvy is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Roda asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Justin Treichel, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Noa Engels commits to Roda for another 4 years.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Kenneth Klaassen to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The mood at Roda 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Roda can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Monza is saying, and nobody at Roda is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Roda
Anton Gaaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Roda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Tol 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Roda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Noa Engels and Roda agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to AS Roma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Apr 2028
Supporters organise against the Roda board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
George Younan: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Roda
Anton Gaaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Roda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Tol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Daan Maas gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Anger at Roda spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match29 Jan 2028
Roda taken apart
0‑4 to Twente, 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Beer Bouvy: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Raphael van Geelkerken 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Roda
Anton Gaaei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Christian Castillo is living that version at Roda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Roda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Tol 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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
In brief
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Match
The goals have deserted Roda
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Transfer targets
Door shut on Oliver Edvardsen
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Roda dressing room in a hurry