Patrick Aké

Left Midfielder - Utrecht U18
3 Apr 2029
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Patrick Aké

86 Edition

The Utrecht Gazette

20 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Pharell Nash at 20 — 7.66

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pharell Nash did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Jerry St. Juste 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 Utrecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Andile Furman’s exile

17 goals in 28 games at RKC Waalwijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Utrecht updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Squad

Jaygo van Ommeren 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 dugout

Tobias Lauritsen gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The terraces

One of their own: Pharell Nash

He is 20 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.

Market

Wout Dost steps up from the Utrecht academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Wout Dost 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.

Market

Patrick Aké steps up from the Utrecht academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrick Aké 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.

Market

One of our own: Robin Simons joins the Utrecht first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robin Simons is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief