The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. De Graafschap will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Groningen; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
He is 23 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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes PSV will be judged on one thing only.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: João Félix. 1‑0 against Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Siebe Horemans 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Denzel Hateboer on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Guus Til has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Jerayno Hunte, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑2 against Zwolle, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Ivan Perišić takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Perišić provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruben van Bommel is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between PSV and Zwolle, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ruben van Bommel has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
MatchAnother one collected away from home
Player ratingsNinety minutes of João Félix at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
João Félix 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yarek Gąsiorowski has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
João Félix 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Denzel Hateboer on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Denzel Hateboer on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Seb Huntelaar 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.
PSV asked and RB Leipzig said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$11.2M on the table at Al-Nassr. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Leeds United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ricardo Pepi. The answer from PSV has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PSV heard it as anything else.
Jerdy Schouten 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJerdy Schouten asks for a word with the manager