Marked for Jaydion Polonius
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Dec 2032
Benjamin Pavard damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Squad27 Dec 2032
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match25 Dec 2032
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.
Market27 Dec 2032
Michal Sadílek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Twente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match25 Dec 2032
Twente cannot stop winning
4 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.
Squad27 Dec 2032
A falling-out at Twente
Daan Rots and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings27 Dec 2032
Kelvin Neijenhuis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.75. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings27 Dec 2032
Ninety minutes of Sondre Ørjasæter at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Twente.
Match27 Dec 2032
Halfway: Twente sit in position 8
26 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Nov 2032
Benjamin Pavard damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Squad22 Nov 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Nov 2032
A falling-out at Twente
Daan Rots and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom22 Nov 2032
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ramiro Lecchini has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Twente have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match20 Nov 2032
It finished 1‑0, and it was Kelvin Neijenhuis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Twente.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Manuel Bahaty 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 dugout22 Nov 2032
Sondre Ørjasæter has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Twente 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 dugout22 Nov 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Nov 2032
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Twente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match27 Oct 2032
Twente through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Emmen, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market1 Nov 2032
“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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Dominique Carré, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market1 Nov 2032
Michal Sadílek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Twente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Mikael Anderson, 34, rolls back the years — 8.08
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Sondre Ørjasæter 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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Tempers go at Twente
Perr Schuurs 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamin Pavard
152 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Twente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 Oct 2032
“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.
Market11 Oct 2032
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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2032
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.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Words exchanged at Twente
Benjamin Nagel 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 dugout11 Oct 2032
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2032
“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.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
When it matters, Daan Rots plays
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.
Market11 Oct 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Twente, another week without a signature from Hugo Deenen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2032
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match18 Sep 2032
Chastening afternoon for Twente
A 0‑3 beating by AZ was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match18 Sep 2032
AZ end the Twente run at 8
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad20 Sep 2032
A falling-out at Twente
Perr Schuurs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“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.
Boardroom20 Sep 2032
Nobody left the Twente dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
When it matters, Tommy Doyle plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2032
Zwolle come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Twente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Aug 2032
“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.
Market9 Aug 2032
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Daan Rots in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Ante Utrobičić arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ante Utrobičić has, at Twente, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Cissoko 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.
Market9 Aug 2032
Jesse Bal told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jesse Bal has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Twente.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
Sparta Rotterdam have gone to PSV 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.
Market14 Jun 2032
“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 Sparta Rotterdam, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Patrick Berg in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Rotterdam this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
Almere City wanted more than $620.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
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 dugout14 Jun 2032
This is not rotation. Denzel Kuijpers has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sparta Rotterdam is pretending otherwise.
Market14 Jun 2032
Twente pay $220.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobias Sommer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Jun 2032
Wages eat 113% of everything Sparta Rotterdam earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jun 2032
Feyenoord come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Twente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jun 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Twente people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2032
Feyenoord paid $11.7M and Twente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market14 Jun 2032
Twente get their man
The chase for Jaydion Polonius ended with $220.0K changing hands and Sparta Rotterdam out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Ørjasæter 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 targets14 Jun 2032
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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Tempers go at Twente
Perr Schuurs 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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2032
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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
No place for Perr Schuurs in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Twente are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2032
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Kulenović
26 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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.
Match17 Apr 2032
9 matches without defeat, and then Heracles. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Patrick Berg in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Rotterdam this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
This is not rotation. Denzel Kuijpers has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sparta Rotterdam is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
157% of the income goes out in wages at Sparta Rotterdam
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
The manager makes an example of Oskar Annell
“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.
Match17 Apr 2032
Heracles left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Alen Dizdarević 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Oct 2031
RKC Waalwijk are out and Sparta Rotterdam go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match1 Nov 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against FC Eindhoven, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Nov 2031
Noah Tolf puts it in writing
“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 Sparta Rotterdam, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Nov 2031
6 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.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Age has not caught Patrick Berg yet — 7.95
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Peer Koopmeiners and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Sparta Rotterdam training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shunsuke Mito 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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
13 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.