Marked for Ryan Van Dijk
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Apr 2036
Emmen taken apart
1‑4 to Dordrecht, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market14 Apr 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Emmen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
RKC Waalwijk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdoul Seydou has pre-agreed a move to Emmen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Tempers go at Emmen
Shakir Lahiani 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A row about effort at Emmen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominique Jacquet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dominique Jacquet, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
Doors closed at Emmen
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Apr 2036
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Emmen know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Emmen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
“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.
Match15 Mar 2036
Emmen come up short against Zwolle
Zwolle left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Emmen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rob Rudonja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Emmen
Victor De Coninck 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.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
Thijs Smink is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad17 Mar 2036
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Emmen lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
Market17 Mar 2036
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mousa Castagne signs something — a contract at Emmen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
Marked 8.19 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market18 Feb 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Emmen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Feb 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Feb 2036
Three points for Emmen, 3‑2 the final word against Telstar in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces18 Feb 2036
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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
The window shuts on the Jeroen Stengs deal
Emmen ran out of time with ADO Den Haag. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Dominique Jacquet 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jan 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Emmen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market28 Jan 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and VVV-Venlo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Emmen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Jan 2036
“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 Emmen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Jan 2036
No sign of nerves from Jordy Wijnaldum at 21 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jordy Wijnaldum did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Emmen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
Emmen have gone to Ajax with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
The deal with Heerenveen is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The terraces28 Jan 2036
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.
Match26 Jan 2036
Den Bosch made Emmen work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Jan 2036
Emmen taken apart
0‑3 to Volendam, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market21 Jan 2036
Ryan Van Dijk hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emmen can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
$540.0K was the most the club would pay and Ajax were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad21 Jan 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Dominique Jacquet arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dominique Jacquet has, at Emmen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout21 Jan 2036
“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.
Squad21 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Emmen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nacer Vertonghen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 Jan 2036
Doors closed at Emmen
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Nov 2035
Nowhere to hide for Emmen
0‑3 against Zwolle, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market5 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Emmen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Tempers go at Emmen
Ramiro Martino 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.
Match30 Oct 2035
0‑1 to MVV Maastricht, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Stefan Harris pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Inquest at Emmen
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
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Squad
Emmen are still strangers to each other
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 87% of the Emmen income
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Squad
Alexander Isak slips down the pecking order
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market4 Jun 2035
Only the photograph left for Joppe Hakstege
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joppe Hakstege will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Emmen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market4 Jun 2035
“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 Emmen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Emmen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joppe Hakstege has agreed terms with VVV-Venlo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Thyago Meza 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 Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Emmen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martino 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Frenkie Dijks and Emmen agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Emmen asked and Roda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Jun 2034
Anger at Emmen 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Emmen
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Emmen is running low.
Market26 Jun 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emmen can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Jun 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2034
The deal with PSV is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad26 Jun 2034
A falling-out at Emmen
Timo Borrie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Emmen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Words at Emmen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Hutchinson 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.
Market26 Jun 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Emmen, another week without a signature from Ziggy Kozluk.