Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MVV Maastricht waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Willem II is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Feyenoord 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Willem II can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Willem II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Willem II know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Willem II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Willem II they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Willem II, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Willem II will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 The request is on a desk at Willem II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joep Mullenders 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adamo Nagalo 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Willem II will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Willem II can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thomas Didillon-Hödl signs something — a contract at Willem II or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Willem II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Willem II they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adamo Nagalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Siegert Baartmans 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Willem II than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Willem II will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nick Doodeman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Willem II can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gonçalo Borges provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gonçalo Borges. 3‑2 against TOP Oss, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edvin Tellgren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Willem II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Willem II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Borges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lasse Wehmeyer 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Rick Wijnaldum was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Willem II dressing room was either.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nathan Tjoe-A-On will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Willem II the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 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.
Siegert Baartmans 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Willem II are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Dordrecht kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Willem II will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adamo Nagalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adamo Nagalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Willem II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rick Wijnaldum, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Willem II told Nick Doodeman something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Willem II, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Borges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karim Konaté. 3‑1 against VVV-Venlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Siegert Baartmans 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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Willem II lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Karim Konaté wants continental football; whether Willem II can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.83, and 2 involvements.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Borges 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.
Siegert Baartmans 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.
He is 22 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.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Willem II lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Willem II have done the hard part with Den Bosch, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Willem II go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$71.0K was the most the club would pay and Go Ahead Eagles 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Julian Baas commits to Willem II for another 4 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meldin Drešković 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 words a physio says slowly. 96 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luuk Koppert will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Willem II the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Willem II have gone to Go Ahead Eagles 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Midtjylland have kept their man, and Willem II go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meldin Drešković 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Willem II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Middlesbrough have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Willem II told Meldin Drešković something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Willem II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$440.0K on the table at Zwolle. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$71.0K on the table at Go Ahead Eagles. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Willem II asked and PSV 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 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.
Nathan Tjoe-A-On 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Willem II can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Justin Hoogma, and the manager let it.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meldin Drešković 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Willem II who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad8 May 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Karim Konaté
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Karim Konaté has come out of that comparison in the side, and Willem II have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Willem II, another week without a signature from Thomas Verheydt.
Manuel Lazzari 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Devin Haen. 2‑0 against Jong Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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 Nick Doodeman.
Chances created: 12. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Nick Doodeman
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Rick Wijnaldum could afford to be generous.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.23, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Willem II until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VVV-Venlo have kept their man, and Willem II go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Devin Haen 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 Julian Baas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chase for Gonçalo Borges ended with $3.7M changing hands and Feyenoord out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Julian Baas has, at Willem II, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
6 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Willem II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Willem II had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Palermo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
12 combined actions and 6.89. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dordrecht? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Chido Obi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Manuel Lazzari 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Meldin Drešković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsNick Doodeman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chido Obi did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karim Konaté. 2‑1 against TOP Oss, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciranni 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.
7.85, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Willem II had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rick Wijnaldum, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Manuel Lazzari 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Willem II told Finn Stam something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uriël Van Aalst was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Willem II is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Willem II know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Willem II have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Thomas Verheydt is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rick Wijnaldum after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Karim Konaté
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Rick Wijnaldum left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Willem II training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uriël Van Aalst 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 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.