The Utrecht Gazette
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms done: Nikolas Panagiotou is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ADO Den Haag waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Utrecht is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Givairo Read at 21 — 7.62
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Givairo Read did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
A new deal for Donny Simons
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Utrecht
Givairo Read and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Real improvement from Miliano Jonathans at Utrecht
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Miliano Jonathans is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Matisse Didden signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matisse Didden commits to Utrecht for another 4 years.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Utrecht
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dani de Wit 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.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Utrecht supporters have found a favourite in Ruben van Bommel
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ruben van Bommel 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
- Market Ryan Stengs steps up from the Utrecht academy
- Market Nathan Clasie steps up from the Utrecht academy
- Market Justin Bergwijn steps up from the Utrecht academy