“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.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marius Broholm, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
3 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.
Vasilis Barkas 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marius Broholm 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Brouwer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Utrecht, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Brouwer 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Sem van Duijn takes the afternoon — 9.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sem van Duijn provided it, and the 9.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.39, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Utrecht and ADO Den Haag in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasilis Barkas 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.
Marvin Peersman 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Minute 88, against Feyenoord, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“I watch every Utrecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panserraikos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Donny Strootman chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
0‑2 against Dinamo Zagreb, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasilis Barkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Utrecht will try not to make too much of it.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Yoann Cathline.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Alonzo Engwanda 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Utrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Peersman 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 Sep 2026
Alonzo Engwanda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Utrecht are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
0‑0 against KV Mechelen, 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marius Broholm, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.35 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Utrecht know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Alonzo Engwanda 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Utrecht and Vitesse, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Sem van Duijn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.52. 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.
The offer from PSV for Yoann Cathline was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marius Broholm did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Heerenveen is saying, and nobody at Utrecht is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasilis Barkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matisse Didden 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.
$34.6M was the most the club would pay and Al-Ittihad 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.
Utrecht 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.
$310.0K on the table at Groningen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Vasilis Barkas 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 shirt still fits. Michael Brouwer is back at Utrecht, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yoann Cathline was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer went to Al-Ittihad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Add another name to the list: OH Leuven have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Siebe Horemans. The answer from Utrecht has not changed — yet.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Utrecht will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Still no offer on the table, and Siebe Horemans’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.