Marked for Bas Blind
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Feb 2045
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings27 Feb 2045
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom27 Feb 2045
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Utrecht
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings27 Feb 2045
A brace, and Amir Ibragimov takes the afternoon — 8.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amir Ibragimov provided it, and the 8.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market27 Feb 2045
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Utrecht is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Feb 2045
Merwan Lamchalhab 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.
Match25 Feb 2045
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Utrecht and De Graafschap in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match25 Feb 2045
Three points for Utrecht, 4‑2 the final word against De Graafschap in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad27 Feb 2045
Joseph Richard 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Oct 2044
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Oct 2044
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.72, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 Oct 2044
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad31 Oct 2044
Merwan Lamchalhab 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.
Squad31 Oct 2044
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ralf Wolff 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.
Squad31 Oct 2044
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wout Gakpo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Oct 2044
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.
Player ratings31 Oct 2044
12 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.
Player ratings31 Oct 2044
Nobody could get near Ralf Wolff
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Oct 2044
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.
Player ratings17 Oct 2044
Manuel Caviglia pops up at the right end — 7.47
7.47, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad17 Oct 2044
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.
Player ratings17 Oct 2044
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad17 Oct 2044
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merwan Lamchalhab 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.
Match15 Oct 2044
ADO Den Haag made Utrecht work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2043
“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 Utrecht, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 Aug 2043
Only the photograph left for Marcus Neill
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Neill will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Utrecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Aug 2043
Bas Blind: 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.
Match15 Aug 2043
No end in sight to Utrecht's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Utrecht has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 Aug 2043
Merwan Lamchalhab 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.
Squad17 Aug 2043
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Neill 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2043
Nobody could get near Ralf Wolff
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2043
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jasper Hartog had Utrecht level again within 1 minutes, and Zwolle never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad17 Aug 2043
The manager makes an example of Wout Dumfries
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Jul 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Utrecht is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom20 Jul 2043
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad20 Jul 2043
Jasper Hartog 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.
Squad20 Jul 2043
At 35 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad20 Jul 2043
Teun Bens 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.
Squad20 Jul 2043
Bas Blind 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.
In brief
-
Market
Roda are about to pick up the phone
-
Market
Utrecht bring in an old head
-
Market
Lois Hazard leaves for nothing