Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volendam they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volendam 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Volendam know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Volendam has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Volendam could ask drops and the wages Yulián Acosta can ask rise.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Volendam will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutJeevan Badwal knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Volendam will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PSV is saying, and nobody at Volendam is enjoying the guessing.
Tiago Dantas 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Words at Volendam training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Bielica 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karim Mperanyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volendam the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Volendam have done the hard part with PSV, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Daniel Bielica 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.
Volendam asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volendam, another week without a signature from Saverio Domanico.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volendam they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volendam can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Almere City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Daniel Bielica 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.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Words at Volendam training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Dantas 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Volendam hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Volendam could ask drops and the wages Karim Mperanyi can ask rise.