Marked for Patrick Hateboer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 2028
Rossi keeps the receipts“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vitesse may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitesse can pretend not to have heard.
Match23 Dec 2028
7 matches without a win for Vitesse
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Vitesse are no longer polite ones.
Rossi Rossi keeps the receipts
Squad25 Dec 2028
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Alassane Pléa scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Heerenveen , and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.80, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Hateboer and Vitesse agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
There were 10 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Vitesse 's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vitesse has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Sep 2027
1‑2 to Feyenoord , and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Solomon Bonnah , and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Hateboer and Vitesse agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market13 Sep 2027
He is 19, and nobody at Vitesse signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
5.75 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.