Marked for Joël Drommel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
Bart van Rooij has left for Heerenveen in a $11.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Twente sell a favourite for $11.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bart van Rooij was one of the reasons people came, and $11.2M does not replace that by itself.
Market21 Jun 2027
Vitesse pay $2.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sondre Ørjasæter and Twente agree another 5 years.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Filip Thorvaldsen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Wout Weghorst’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Anger at Vitesse 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The knee: Teun Bosch out for 69 days
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitesse lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jun 2027
The chase for Joël Drommel ended with $2.1M changing hands and Twente out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Nino Zonneveld is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Gaoussou Diarra 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Vitesse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Joël Drommel from Twente for $2.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Atlético Madrid 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
Market14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vitesse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Twente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Twente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Cambuur wanted more than $4.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market14 Jun 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Twente get their man
The chase for Robin Mantel ended with $900.0K changing hands and Heracles out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The step up is real for Delé Thomas
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Twente
Lars Unnerstall 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson wants continental football; whether Twente can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
4 Twente players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
The knee: Teun Bosch out for 76 days
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitesse lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Jun 2027
Every point is an argument now for Vitesse
Position 16 and 21 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Vitesse and AZ have settled on $5.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitesse can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The deal with Twente 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pontus Dahbo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Vitesse
Gaoussou Diarra 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$98.0K was the most the club would pay and Heracles 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Daouda Weidmann: 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.” Twente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Twente have gone to Cambuur 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.
Market7 Jun 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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cambuur have kept their man, and Twente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Julian Oerip is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Twente
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Ørjasæter 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Max Bruns, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
No hiding place for Max Bruns
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Max Bruns, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Twente
Lars Unnerstall 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.
Squad24 May 2027
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Thomas van den Belt, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mees Hilgers, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
Mees Hilgers has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Market24 May 2027
The name of Bart van Rooij keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Twente say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 May 2027
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 Daouda Weidmann is on it.
The dugout24 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager plants his flag on Wout Weghorst
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Wout Weghorst’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad24 May 2027
Lars Unnerstall is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tim Brobbey has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 May 2027
One of our own: Owen Malen joins the Twente first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Owen Malen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 May 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bas Depay has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market3 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luuk Blind has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad3 May 2027
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Nigel Groenewald, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout3 May 2027
Rai Vloet 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 Rai Vloet is on it.
Squad3 May 2027
A wage question at Twente
Lars Unnerstall has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes Joël Drommel a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Twente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Twente have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sondre Ørjasæter 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Lars Unnerstall has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Twente 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Joël Drommel
“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
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Twente
4 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.
Squad26 Oct 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Twente
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Twente can tell you which week it ends in.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to ADO Den Haag, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Twente
13 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.
The dugout26 Oct 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Marten Clasie to a room that had heard them before.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Twente
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Nagel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Joël Drommel
“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
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Conner van Kilsdonk has just signed for Twente, and for once the answer mattered.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Twente
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Twente can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.37 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Twente had the best player on the pitch.
Market19 Oct 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Conner van Kilsdonk and Twente agree another 3 years.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marten Clasie was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Twente dressing room was either.
Match17 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Twente?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Zwolle? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Twente
Ramiz Zerrouki 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ajax take the points off Twente
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marten Clasie after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Benjamin Nagel 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Drommel, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Twente man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Wout Weghorst was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Mees Hilgers 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.