Marked for Daryl van Mieghem
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Anger at ADO Den Haag 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Evan Rottier will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at ADO Den Haag escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Matteo Waem
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 7.65. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match26 Dec 2026
It needed Evan Rottier to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Heracles, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jeroen Houwen dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for ADO Den Haag
Position 18 and 11 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Luka Reischl 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 ADO Den Haag can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mees Kreekels: 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.” ADO Den Haag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Illaijh de Ruijter 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jalen Hawkins. 1‑0 against Vitesse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
18 matches without a win for ADO Den Haag
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around ADO Den Haag are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Dec 2026
13 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ADO Den Haag can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The scrutiny sharpens at ADO Den Haag
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at ADO Den Haag is running low.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Daryl van Mieghem 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Amir Ismaïl 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Illaijh de Ruijter
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Illaijh de Ruijter has come out of that comparison in the side, and ADO Den Haag have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. AZ will be the happier side with the point.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$702.9K taken back off the ADO Den Haag table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
17 matches without a win for ADO Den Haag
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around ADO Den Haag are no longer polite ones.
Match28 Nov 2026
12 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ADO Den Haag can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at ADO Den Haag 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Ajax, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kilian Nikiéma decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match11 Nov 2026
A 0‑0 win over AZ, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match14 Nov 2026
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ADO Den Haag can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kilian Nikiéma 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nigel Thomas
“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
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
13 matches without a win for ADO Den Haag
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around ADO Den Haag are no longer polite ones.
Match7 Nov 2026
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market9 Nov 2026
Luka Reischl 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 ADO Den Haag can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jan Žambůrek
“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
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for ADO Den Haag
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around ADO Den Haag are no longer polite ones.
Match26 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for ADO Den Haag
Position 18 and 3 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ADO Den Haag can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ADO Den Haag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Kilian Nikiéma 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Twente left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
10 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ADO Den Haag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match17 Oct 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for ADO Den Haag
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Feyenoord left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matteo Waem 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to ADO Den Haag's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ADO Den Haag has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kilian Nikiéma is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jan Žambůrek 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
NEC left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daryl van Mieghem 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Nigel Thomas
“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
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to ADO Den Haag's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ADO Den Haag has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Djomar Giersthove 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 Sep 2026
Daryl van Mieghem 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Diogo Tomás 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for ADO Den Haag
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around ADO Den Haag are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Matteo Waem 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Heerenveen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daryl van Mieghem 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kilian Nikiéma dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Juho Kilo spends the afternoon fouling
Fouls conceded: 10. He was booked, he was fortunate not to be booked twice, and the referee had run out of patience long before the end.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Matteo Waem 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 ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.95 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, ADO Den Haag had the best player on the pitch.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Willem II leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Illaijh de Ruijter, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kilian Nikiéma and ADO Den Haag agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matteo Waem 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pascal Mulder 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Kilian Nikiéma’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matteo Waem asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.