Position 16 and 17 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Jan 2047
Nuno Reis 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nuno Reis 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Roda and Willem II in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aron Ryerson 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 Roda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2‑4 away to the standard of Universitatea Craiova. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Roda and Universitatea Craiova in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Tiago Viana scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Ajax, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad17 Dec 2046
Aron Ryerson 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 words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7 goals in one match, Omer Atzili on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and De Graafschap.
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Dec 2046
Samuel Soares was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsRadja Boyata ran the middle of the pitch — 7.92
The terracesThe press have found their man in Omer Atzili
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑3 away to the standard of Bayern Munich. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
128 appearances across 17 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 14 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
11 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.
2‑2 against Club Brugge, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Ajax go through and Roda go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Magnus Normann scored, was marked 7.32, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
12 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Magnus Normann, marked 7.69, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
8 goals in one match, Magnus Normann on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and AZ.
Player ratings22 Oct 2046
Omer Atzili was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Anastasios Retsos had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Cambuur were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nuno Reis 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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad8 Oct 2046
Nuno Reis 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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑2 away to the standard of Bayern Munich. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anastasios Retsos provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 goals in one match, Samuel Soares on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and Zwolle.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Georginio Weghorst obliged against Cambuur. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Roda.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Roda will not try tonight.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Roda and ADO Den Haag in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.29 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It needed Anastasios Retsos to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against ADO Den Haag, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Roda has been clear about where Sebastian Franke stands, which is more than many ever get.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
0‑3 to Ajax, 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lukasz Frankowski knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
Position 17 and 16 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 had been thinking. Patrick Bjorkan 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.
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.
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad2 Jul 2046
Nuno Reis 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nobody at Roda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Roda has been clear about where Justin Van Dijk stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Position 17 and 16 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.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Roda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Jun 2046
Nuno Reis 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.
Nobody at Roda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Roda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Mar 2046
Fadil Alimi 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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Roda could ask drops and the wages Emeka Kelvin Agu can ask rise.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 17 and 15 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
134 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Marked 7.90. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 behind and going nowhere, until Anastasios Retsos decided otherwise. Twente had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anastasios Retsos. 4‑3 against Twente, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fadil Alimi 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Perry 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.
152 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 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.
159 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Roda can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Perry 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Marked 6.58 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Willem II left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Dec 2045
Jack Perry 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑10 to Ajax, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 0 saves does not settle it either way.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Roda and Ajax, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fadil Alimi 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.
17 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.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Perry 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.
16 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.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 goals in one match, Anastasios Retsos on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and Utrecht.
Nobody at Roda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
15 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fadil Alimi 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 Nov 2045
Fadil Alimi 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.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
In brief
SquadFadil Alimi falls out with a teammate over standards
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Roda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lukasz Frankowski: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anastasios Retsos provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
8 goals in one match, Anastasios Retsos on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Roda and NEC.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2‑5 to ADO Den Haag, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Roda and ADO Den Haag, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Perry 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Perry 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Roda and Ajax in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.61, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad21 Aug 2045
Jack Perry 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 words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kostas Nikolaou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Roda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anastasios Retsos. 2‑1 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cody Van Dijk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bas De Vrij 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Virgil De Roon is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radja Boyata 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
95 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aron Ryerson and Roda agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jul 2045
Radja Boyata 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Roda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Roda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Roda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylano van Niftrik 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.
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Omer Atzili
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylano van Niftrik 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Roda and PSV, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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 words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
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.
Tiago Viana 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.