Marked for Patrick Simons
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Apr 2031
A falling-out at Roda
Koen Jansen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Joran Hardeman 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 dugout28 Apr 2031
No hiding place for Marco Tol
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Tol, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Apr 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordy Clasie and Roda agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Roda will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Apr 2030
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Market29 Apr 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Roda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Roda
Wassim Bouziane 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Roda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koen Jansen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jarvy Jans and Roda agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Ben Zich
“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.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market29 Apr 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ilias Takidine may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Apr 2030
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.
Match22 Apr 2030
Roda are in real trouble now
Position 18, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad22 Apr 2030
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Roda
Wassim Bouziane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A move Patrick Simons 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. Patrick Simons is living that version at Roda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Koen Jansen 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.
Market22 Apr 2030
Patrick Simons is 20, and Roda have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Lassana Faye knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lassana Faye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.