Marked for Patrick Simons
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Simons
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Telstar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Telstar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Telstar
Tyrese Noslin 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Telstar asked and Westerlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim Salah-Eddine and Telstar agree another 5 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Telstar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hasip Korkmazyürek 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to VfL Wolfsburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Antwerp have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Patrick Brouwer asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patrick Simons
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Telstar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Pressure builds in the Telstar boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Magdeburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Telstar
Tyrese Noslin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Telstar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Olić commits to Telstar for another 4 years.
Market2 Aug 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Telstar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mees Kreekels was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrick Brouwer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Telstar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Telstar have done the hard part with Helmond Sport, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market26 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Dylan Timber
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Timber will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Telstar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dylan Timber has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market26 Jul 2027
The chase for Luka Olić ended with $410.0K changing hands and Emmen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad26 Jul 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 Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jahlani Fonteni arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jahlani Fonteni has, at Telstar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Telstar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hasip Korkmazyürek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Telstar
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Telstar is running low.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Telstar can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Telstar have done the hard part with Go Ahead Eagles, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Telstar
Tyrese Noslin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 41 days on the sidelines for Kay van de Vorst, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Jun 2027
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market7 Jun 2027
Noah Tamsamani is 18, and Telstar 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Telstar, another week without a signature from Yanick van Osch.