Marked for Ryan Thomas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Zwolle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 May 2027
Tobias Sommer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Zwolle
Armando Obispo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Sydney van Hooijdonk 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.
Market17 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zwolle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout17 May 2027
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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Elias Sørensen knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zwolle, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout17 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thomas Vannoye has written the date down.
Squad17 May 2027
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Armando Obispo 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.
Squad10 May 2027
At 21, Paul Wanner is already the best thing here
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Zwolle have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sydney van Hooijdonk 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 dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Koen Kostons, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Tobias Sommer 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zwolle will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market10 May 2027
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Zwolle money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
A bad afternoon for Zwolle against PSV
2‑3 to PSV, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sydney van Hooijdonk 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 terraces26 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Shola Shoretire 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquin Sabono and Zwolle agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Paul Wanner gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Paul Wanner is on it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Simon Graves knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simon Graves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market19 Apr 2027
Tobias Sommer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2027
6 saves: Len Bakker was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad19 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sydney van Hooijdonk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
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.
Match17 Apr 2027
1‑2 to Heerenveen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 2027
Ryan Thomas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Paul Wanner, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zwolle may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Zwolle
Simon Graves and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Both jobs done by Koen Kostons — 6.78
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 6.78, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Paul Wanner is the real thing at 21
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Zwolle know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match10 Apr 2027
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Thijs Oosting 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Naj Lulić and Zwolle agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Zwolle
Armando Obispo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Graves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Ryan 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Zwolle
Something was said to Tobias Sommer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Paul Wanner has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zwolle 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thijs Oosting’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Zwolle needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market29 Mar 2027
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Zwolle could get for him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Elias Sørensen 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The date has moved again for Nick Viergever
Another 0 days, and a comeback that has now been promised more than once. Nobody in the medical room is putting a fresh date in writing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Mar 2027
Ryan Thomas 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 Zwolle can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Tobias Sommer
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobias Sommer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zwolle the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Zwolle's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zwolle has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thijs Oosting was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tijs Velthuis, and the manager let it.
Match20 Mar 2027
It needed Thijs Oosting to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cambuur, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Half-satisfied: Guus Dumfries on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Mar 2027
The small margins put Zwolle out
Out, 1‑2 to AZ, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Paul Wanner at 21 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paul Wanner did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match13 Mar 2027
4 matches without a win for Zwolle
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zwolle are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Zwolle
Armando Obispo 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Graves 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Excelsior left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 21 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Armando Obispo 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nick Viergever commits to Zwolle for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Simon Graves 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Twente left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Guus Dumfries after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Zwolle are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Simon Graves 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Zwolle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Zwolle
Armando Obispo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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 Zwolle know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ryan Thomas wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Zwolle know now that the thought has arrived.
Match27 Feb 2027
0‑2 to ADO Den Haag, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Guus Dumfries to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Paul Wanner has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zwolle 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rainey Breinburg, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Feb 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against NEC, and it could have been more.
Market22 Feb 2027
Ryan Thomas 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 Zwolle can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sydney van Hooijdonk provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Graves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Zwolle
Jan Faberski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zwolle lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Ryan Thomas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryan Thomas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zwolle the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Paul Wanner, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Tobias Sommer pops up at the right end — 7.58
7.58, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Zwolle
Armando Obispo 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Simon Graves 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Zwolle get the job done against Roda
A 1‑0 win over Roda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market25 Jan 2027
Tobias Sommer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Thijs Oosting 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Graves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Zwolle 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Ryan Thomas 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Jeremy Eilander
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Zwolle will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Mallorca 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nick Viergever damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Match13 Jan 2027
Zwolle march on in the cup
Willem II are out and Zwolle go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Naj Lulić at 19 — 7.85
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Naj Lulić did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Jan Faberski beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Dave Bulthuis goes up and wins it — 7.66
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Zwolle had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NEC have kept their man, and Zwolle go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for Zwolle
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Groningen kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Zwolle will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Shola Shoretire takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shola Shoretire provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Naj Lulić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The deal with Ajax is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Zwolle's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zwolle has to find a result from somewhere.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market4 Jan 2027
Zwolle say no — this time
The offer from ADO Den Haag for Ryan Thomas 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The step up is real for Naj Lulić
At 19 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tobias Sommer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A move David Mindombe would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. David Mindombe is living that version at Zwolle, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Zwolle
Simon Graves 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Odysseus Velanas has come up in conversations Zwolle were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Zwolle asked and ADO Den Haag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Dec 2026
Ryan Thomas 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 Zwolle can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Tom de Graaff: 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.” Zwolle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Björn Mellema is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Nick Viergever 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Feyenoord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ryan 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.
Match28 Dec 2026
Zwolle at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 12, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nick Viergever damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑4 to PSV, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ruben Veer arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ruben Veer has, at Zwolle, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Graves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Zwolle dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market21 Dec 2026
Ruben Veer is 19, and Zwolle 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nick Viergever damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
At last: Zwolle win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Vitesse. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Thijs Oosting 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Vitesse, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Sydney van Hooijdonk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Zwolle
Ibrahim Cissoko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Tijs Velthuis
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ace Sali and Zwolle agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Guus Dumfries kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nick Viergever damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
“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 Zwolle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Zwolle's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zwolle has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Thijs Oosting 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Simon Graves 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
AZ take the points off Zwolle
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Younes Namli beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Koen Kostons
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Guus Dumfries to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nick Viergever
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Zwolle
A 1‑1 win over Feyenoord, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Cambuur, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Zwolle
6 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Rainey Breinburg at 21 — 7.73
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rainey Breinburg did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Zwolle
Simon Graves and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Ryan Thomas 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Zwolle dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
The kick that got away from Odysseus Velanas
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nick Viergever damages knee ligaments — 141 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 141 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Simon Graves 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 Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A promise honoured for Naj Lulić
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zwolle told Naj Lulić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Jasper Schendelaar is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Odysseus Velanas: 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.” Zwolle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zwolle
Shola Shoretire 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Cissoko, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
7.25, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Zwolle had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Shola Shoretire named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Shola Shoretire is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zwolle, another week without a signature from Ryan Thomas.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Zwolle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dave Bulthuis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Zwolle
Anselmo García Mac Nulty and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Thijs Oosting 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Zwolle rescue it on 94 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. ADO Den Haag had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad26 Oct 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Zwolle
16 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Half-satisfied: Guus Dumfries on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nick Dobben
“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
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Zwolle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nick Viergever, 37, rolls back the years — 8.07
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FC Copenhagen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zwolle
Anselmo García Mac Nulty 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
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match12 Sep 2026
Zwolle and Ajax take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Ryan Thomas 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 Zwolle can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Zwolle 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rainey Breinburg arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rainey Breinburg has, at Zwolle, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Zwolle
Anselmo García Mac Nulty 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sydney van Hooijdonk 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Roda have kept their man, and Zwolle go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rainey Breinburg and Zwolle agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to FC Copenhagen: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.