Marked for Sam Lammers
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Sam Lammers
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Marko Pjaca 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 Twente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
Twente say no — this time
The offer from Ajax for Sondre Ørjasæter 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Mark Diemers 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 Twente can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Mathias Kjølø has come up in conversations Twente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces7 Jun 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Wout Weghorst
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Twente would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 May 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.
Squad31 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathias Kjølø, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Twente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 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.
Market19 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Twente
Ibrahim Sadiq 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lars Unnerstall, and the manager let it.
Match27 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Naci Ünüvar’s exile
7 goals in 33 games at Heracles — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Twente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Lars Unnerstall has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Twente that is a harder question to answer.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 5.70, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
5.80 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
In brief
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Younes Taha’s exile
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The terraces
Everybody has an opinion about Sam Lammers
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 44, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match13 Jan 2027
Cup progress for Twente
A 2‑2 win over Utrecht, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad18 Jan 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lars Unnerstall: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Twente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market18 Jan 2027
Twente get their man
The chase for Odysseus Velanas ended with $790.0K changing hands and Zwolle out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
David Min runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Mathias Kjølø again, and this time the name on the line is Roda. Twente are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Daan Rots
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
45 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Sam Lammers
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Twente can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Twente
Daley Blind 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Twente do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
171% of the income goes out in wages at Twente
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.40 — 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arno Verschueren, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Honours even between Twente and Roda
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 terraces5 Oct 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Lars Unnerstall
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Sep 2026
Taylor Booth 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 Twente can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daley Blind 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.