Marked for Patrick Van Dijk
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Sep 2032
Patrick Van Dijk damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market27 Sep 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.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Tempers go at AZ
Matěj Šín 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Nobody could get near Matěj Šín
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Words at AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wouter Goes 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.
Squad27 Sep 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match25 Sep 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2032
Patrick Van Dijk damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match17 Sep 2032
AZ come up short in Europe
0‑1 away to the standard of RB Leipzig. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad20 Sep 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.
Market20 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Matěj Šín 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 AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patati 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.
Match18 Sep 2032
AZ get the job done against Groningen
A 3‑2 win over Groningen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Marked 8.04 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad13 Sep 2032
Patrick Van Dijk damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Match11 Sep 2032
AZ cannot stop winning
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.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Market13 Sep 2032
Julian Oerip has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
A defender's goal wins it for AZ — 7.45
1 for Unai Vencedor, marked 7.45, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Tempers go at AZ
Matěj Šín 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.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Patati 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.
Match11 Sep 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Isak Jensen. 2‑0 against Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Player ratings
Patati runs at them all day
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Market
Julian Oerip is free to find somewhere else
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Market
The Kees Smit story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad6 Sep 2032
Patrick Van Dijk damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.07, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Gijs Smal says AZ went back on their word
“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.
Match4 Sep 2032
AZ cannot stop winning
5 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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Matěj Šín 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 AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Wouter Goes 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.
Match4 Sep 2032
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lewis Schouten’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AZ.
Match4 Sep 2032
AZ keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings6 Sep 2032
Nobody could get near Matěj Šín
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Patati
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Boardroom
$14.4M on the table at AZ
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Market
Hessel de Wit is free to find somewhere else
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Van Dijk
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Aug 2032
Excelsior come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match28 Aug 2032
AZ 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Tempers go at AZ
Matěj Šín 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.
Market30 Aug 2032
Finn Molenaar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Patati 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vladyslav Kabaiev has just signed for AZ, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Van Dijk
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Aug 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Gijs Smal gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gijs Smal has just signed for AZ, and for once the answer mattered.
Market23 Aug 2032
AZ say no — this time
The offer from Ajax for Vasilis Zagaritis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Matěj Šín 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 AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Aug 2032
Tycho de Wit has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match21 Aug 2032
AZ make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now AZ have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom23 Aug 2032
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Edoardo Iannoni has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means AZ have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match21 Aug 2032
Heerenveen made AZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Van Dijk
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market16 Aug 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Patati 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 AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
Cody Klaassen signs on for the long haul
AZ moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Cody Klaassen, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Market16 Aug 2032
The bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at AZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Šín 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
10 academy players handed senior numbers at AZ
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match14 Aug 2032
Vitesse made AZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2032
Patrick Van Dijk damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kees Smit and AZ agree another 4 years.
Market9 Aug 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Kees Smit 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 AZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vasilis Zagaritis has agreed terms with Twente for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Matěj Šín 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
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Van Dijk
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Aug 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.
Market2 Aug 2032
Julian Oerip has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Aug 2032
317 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kees Smit and AZ agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Tempers go at AZ
Matěj Šín 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
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Van Dijk
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Ramón Mierez says AZ went back on their word
“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.
Market26 Jul 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2032
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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Matěj Šín 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.
Market26 Jul 2032
The clock does Ramón Mierez’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee AZ could ask drops and the wages Ramón Mierez can ask rise.
In brief
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Market
AZ put Nick Homan up for sale
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Market
The Nnamdi Koka question follows AZ around
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Boardroom
The AZ production line keeps running
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Boardroom
AZ board back the manager