Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 The request is on a desk at NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between NEC and Utrecht, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
NEC asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Calvin 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
NEC asked and Lincoln City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Massien Ghaddari has come up in conversations NEC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willum Þór Willumsson 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Utrecht in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Ibrahim Cissoko.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
NEC have gone to Zwolle 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Illaijh de Ruijter has, at NEC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Illaijh de Ruijter is 20, and NEC have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
NEC have gone to AZ 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.
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.
Everything agreed with Groningen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Tjaronn Chery 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Darko Nejašmić signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at NEC that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NEC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at NEC and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Tjaronn Chery 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.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad10 May 2027
Adrian Blake 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Crettaz signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 14 games at VVV-Venlo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NEC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NEC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
NEC close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal that would have taken Jetro Willems to Excelsior has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to NEC with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $445.0K — a club that wants Fabiano Rust enough to be asked twice.
NEC have gone to Feyenoord 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.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Utrecht 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Youssef El Kachati 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. NEC will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and NEC are still learning each other
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $233.6K — a club that wants Joel Ideho enough to be asked twice.
NEC asked and RKC Waalwijk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
NEC have gone to Sparta Rotterdam 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.
Virgil Misidjan 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.