Marked for Sam Lammers
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 16 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match22 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Jong PSV
A 2‑17 beating by Dordrecht was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market24 Aug 2026
Jong PSV say no — this time
The offer from Carrarese for Sam Lammers 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
19 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Jong PSV and Dordrecht in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Jong PSV have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 2‑17 Wesley Aké left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Esmir Bajraktarević 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑7 by Emmen, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Jong PSV and Emmen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Jong PSV 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑7, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Esmir Bajraktarević 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 dugout17 Aug 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Chances created: 6. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sami Ouaissa and Jong PSV agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Jong PSV will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Sami Ouaissa 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 Sami Ouaissa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sam Lammers and Jong PSV agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sam Lammers 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 Jong PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Sam Lammers
Still no offer on the table, and Sam Lammers’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.