Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at De Graafschap can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ibrahim El Kadiri and De Graafschap agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Mick Tiel's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luka Ivanov has his answer from De Graafschap; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The captaincy has been taken off Donny Warmerdam. De Graafschap will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The mood at De Graafschap 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at De Graafschap
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around De Graafschap are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Edvardsen 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.
The goal that put Twente ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when De Graafschap equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezekiel Kwame Alladoh 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.
Oliver Adametz 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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Edvardsen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. De Graafschap know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Marked 5.33. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Levi Schoppema will want back
The mood at De Graafschap 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adem Boubghi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around De Graafschap 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 De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Edvardsen 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.