The AZ Gazette
Market13 Aug 2029
Only the photograph left for Ro-Zangelo Daal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ro-Zangelo Daal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Tempers go at AZ
Patati 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.
Boardroom13 Aug 2029
AZ tie Robin Babel down
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Market13 Aug 2029
As if he never left: Rick Klaassen returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Rick Klaassen is a AZ player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market13 Aug 2029
Tim Babel is a AZ player again
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market13 Aug 2029
Frenkie Brobbey comes home
The shirt still fits. Frenkie Brobbey is back at AZ, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Enoch Mastoras stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enoch Mastoras and AZ agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match11 Aug 2029
Whatever happens, AZ do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match11 Aug 2029
AZ find a way past Vitesse
Vitesse made AZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
In brief
- Player ratings One of those days for Wouter Goes
- Player ratings One of those days for Patati
- Player ratings A masterclass from Isak Jensen