“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 The request is on a desk at Fortuna Sittard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuel Bastien will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fortuna Sittard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Utrecht paid $7.5M and Fortuna Sittard took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Myron Boadu has gone, the accounts have $7.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Groningen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to RKC Waalwijk this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Jasper Dahlhaus 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jong PSV they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and MVV Maastricht were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad8 May 2028
Jordy Bawuah 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.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong PSV will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Something was said to Mikkel Bro Hansen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Jong PSV will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutJesper Uneken knocks on the manager's door
Position 18 and 30 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
De Graafschap left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Jong PSV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordy Bawuah 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.
Nobody at Jong PSV is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Jong PSV was different afterwards.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jong PSV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nicolas Verkooijen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Roda left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Jong PSV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordy Bawuah 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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Two goals and a mark of 9.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raf van de Riet did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.91 beside his name.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Jong PSV and VVV-Venlo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
21 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ryan Flamingo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 PSV, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PSV heard it as anything else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jong PSV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 17 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.
Cambuur left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Jordy Bawuah 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Nicolas Verkooijen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jong PSV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jong PSV has been clear about where Mikkel Bro Hansen stands, which is more than many ever get.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Dordrecht.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jong PSV, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong PSV can pretend not to have heard.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Jordy Bawuah 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jordy Bawuah is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Jong PSV than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Position 18 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordy Bawuah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Jong Ajax on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Essien Bassey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Jong PSV that is a harder question to answer.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Jong PSV was different afterwards.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Jong PSV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordy Bawuah 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.
Nobody at Jong PSV is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Jong PSV have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Madi Monamay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jong PSV the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 17 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Mikkel Bro Hansen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. ADO Den Haag defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 Oct 2027
Words at Jong PSV training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordy Bawuah 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 have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong PSV will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Jong PSV. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Jong PSV have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Jong PSV spent the window trying to move Sven van der Plas on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Helmond Sport waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Jong PSV is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Three points for Jong PSV, 2‑1 the final word against Cambuur in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Jordy Bawuah 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 name of Wesley Strootman has come up in conversations Jong PSV were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jong PSV people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: RWDM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Niek Schiks. The answer from Jong PSV has not changed — yet.
Niek Schiks was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sam Lammers has written the date down.