The Utrecht Gazette
Squad13 Feb 2040
A knee injury of the worst kind for Souffian El Karouani
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Utrecht lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces13 Feb 2040
Anger at Utrecht spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad13 Feb 2040
A fracture rules Sven Mijnans out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Utrecht will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match11 Feb 2040
A hiding for Utrecht
Beaten 0‑3 by ADO Den Haag, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match13 Feb 2040
Every point is an argument now for Utrecht
Position 16 and 20 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.
Squad13 Feb 2040
Wout Dumfries: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Utrecht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Feb 2040
Davide Mastrantonio keeps Utrecht in it on his own
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match11 Feb 2040
6 matches without a win for Utrecht
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Utrecht are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Feb 2040
Utrecht are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
In brief
- Boardroom Doors closed at Utrecht
- Market Patrick Babel told to find a new club
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Amir Ibragimov