The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at NEC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
NEC have gone to Roda 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.
Danilho Doekhi 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jasper De Roon has agreed terms with Vitesse for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Obougou Jacquet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.59 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NEC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gustav Granath will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around NEC 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lev Jenzeh has, at NEC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Cambuur tried to reorganise, NEC did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Player ratingsNoam Obougou Jacquet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Patati was at the centre of it, Excelsior were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Danilho Doekhi 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patati. 4‑3 against Excelsior, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Laurent Alderweireld is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Obougou Jacquet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Lukáš Franc has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Nobody at NEC 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Jasper De Roon.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levi Schoppema 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.
Mart Jansen 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at De Graafschap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bas Babel is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Gabriel Báez a promise
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jasper De Roon 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.
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 young player of the month award goes to a 18-year-old at De Graafschap who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at De Graafschap, another week without a signature from Jasper De Roon.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Martin Stojcevic has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Levi Schoppema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at De Graafschap has been clear about where Soner Salih Yavuz stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad28 Apr 2031
A De Graafschap teenager takes the young player award
Bas Babel is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. De Graafschap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at De Graafschap pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Benjamin Van der Ackerveken has his answer from De Graafschap; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. De Graafschap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around De Graafschap they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jay Amour commits to De Graafschap for another 4 years.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Wassim Bouziane was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Ibrahim El Kadiri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levi Schoppema 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at De Graafschap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
ADO Den Haag next, and one man in the De Graafschap dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at De Graafschap. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
BoardroomThe De Graafschap production line keeps running
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to ADO Den Haag
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bas Babel did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Kobus Bruinsma 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levi Schoppema 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.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑1 draw with Utrecht leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
SquadBas Babel, 18, is the weekend’s best young player
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at De Graafschap is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Wassim Bouziane was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
A season average of 7.24 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.