The Excelsior Gazette
Market12 Jul 2027
Juan Familia-Castillo asks to leave Excelsior
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Jordy Steins due for a Excelsior medical
Everything agreed with Roda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market12 Jul 2027
Noa El Hamdaoui has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Excelsior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Gyan de Regt 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Door shut on Niek Schiks
Excelsior 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Excelsior promote Memphis Frimpong from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Memphis Frimpong has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 Jul 2027
Patrick Janssen steps up from the Excelsior academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrick Janssen has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Home is on Juan Familia-Castillo's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Excelsior are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Excelsior
Guilliano Cairo 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.
In brief
- The dugout When it matters, Jorrit Smeets plays
- The dugout A promise honoured at Excelsior
- The dugout Jorrit Smeets knocks on the manager's door