Marco Simons

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Groningen U18
11 May 2031
Sunday
Process

Marked for Marco Simons

159 Edition

The Groningen Courier

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Menno Koch breaks a bone — 47 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Marvin Peersman hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Groningen can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Both of them Liam van Nistelrooij's — 8.73

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Groningen lose Jorg Schreuders

48 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Transfer targets

Anis Hadj Moussa turns down Groningen

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Feyenoord keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Tyrell Malacia 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 Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

5 academy graduates step up at Groningen

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

Transfer targets

Groningen rebuffed over Robin Janssen

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Groningen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The terraces

Groningen supporters have found a favourite in Liam van Nistelrooij

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Liam van Nistelrooij has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

In brief