“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 The request is on a desk at Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heerenveen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Heerenveen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Maarten Paes 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Heerenveen asked and Telstar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Roda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 The request is on a desk at Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heerenveen have done the hard part with Barcelona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
PSV paid $1.1M and Heerenveen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Maarten Paes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jan 2029
David Zima 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Sherel Floranus has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heerenveen have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
At 22 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.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Maarten Paes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. 11 actions, 6.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Gaoussou Diarra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Maarten Paes 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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 touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
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 Ferdy Druijf is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heerenveen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bernt Klaverboer 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.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A Heerenveen teenager takes the young player award
Thomas Janssen is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heerenveen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Heerenveen scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Jesse Doetjes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 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.
Dylan Vente 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dylan Vente. 3‑2 against Telstar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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. 13 actions, 7.18, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
At 20 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.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maarten Paes 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heerenveen told Dylan Vente something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Virgil De Ligt after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Heerenveen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mitchel Bakker 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasilis Zagaritis 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 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dylan Vente’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Heerenveen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heerenveen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heerenveen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Dylan Vente 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 Sep 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kaj Sierhuis, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Heerenveen are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
0‑3 to AZ, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heerenveen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
8 matches without defeat, and then AZ. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad18 Sep 2028
David Zima 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heerenveen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
PSV paid $10.8M and Heerenveen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobias Sommer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heerenveen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Heerenveen asked and Telstar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mitchel Bakker and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Heerenveen and Ajax have settled on $16.2M. 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” RKC Waalwijk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heerenveen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maarten Paes 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
David Zima 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heerenveen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Maarten Paes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heerenveen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Heerenveen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heerenveen, another week without a signature from Amir Ismaïl.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jonas Veltman 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.
Dylan Vente 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Heerenveen, and 8 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
Something was said to Quincy Hoeve and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutTobias Sommer has become a man the manager trusts
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 50 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dylan Vente decided nobody was going anywhere. Utrecht had no time left to answer.
Dylan Vente 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Utrecht made Heerenveen work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 May 2028
David Zima was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
The dugout1 May 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.” Virgil De Ligt, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mitchel Bakker wants continental football; whether Heerenveen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Maarten Paes 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 Apr 2028
David Zima 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Zwolle had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A 1‑1 draw with Zwolle leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Virgil De Ligt was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Heerenveen dressing room was either.
Mats Egbring, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
David Zima 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.
Maxence Rivera 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Amir Ismaïl 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.
“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 dugout17 Apr 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.” Virgil De Ligt, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Heerenveen 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.
In brief
The dugoutEser Gürbüz has become a man the manager trusts
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Heerenveen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Frosinone runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It needed Dylan Vente to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against NAC Breda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Virgil De Ligt chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Maarten Paes
Heracles will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Heerenveen were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Eser Gürbüz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 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.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
David Zima 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.
Zwolle will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Sascha Risch has pre-agreed a move to Heerenveen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Eser Gürbüz 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.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Dylan Vente 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
“I watch every Heerenveen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Frosinone runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Heerenveen pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Heerenveen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
David Zima 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Levi Smans 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.
“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 dugout21 Feb 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.” Virgil De Ligt, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Willem II waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Heerenveen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Eser Gürbüz has come up in conversations Heerenveen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Jan 2028
David Zima 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Juho Kilo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heerenveen have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Heerenveen, and 2 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and AZ had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Heerenveen did not stop to explain themselves.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Marcus Linday has come up in conversations Heerenveen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Utrecht will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Davy van den Berg has pre-agreed a move to Heerenveen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Pergolettese for Eser Gürbüz 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.
Maarten Paes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
David Zima 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heerenveen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everything agreed with Sparta Rotterdam, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heerenveen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Dylan Vente 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Heerenveen asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nolhan Courtens and Heerenveen agree another 4 years.
“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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Niko Wood, 18, 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 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heerenveen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Maarten Paes 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
At 18 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Fortuna Sittard kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Heerenveen will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Dylan Vente takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dylan Vente provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dylan Vente and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
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.
Nobody at Heerenveen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heerenveen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Heracles next, and one man in the Heerenveen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Heerenveen would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
David Zima 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dylan Vente. 2‑1 against Telstar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hristiyan Petrov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Heerenveen have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutMaarten Paes has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
David Zima 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dylan Vente. 2‑0 against Twente, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Virgil De Ligt could afford to be generous.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Heerenveen have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marcus Linday trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
Dylan Vente and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Virgil De Ligt on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Zima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Heerenveen, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heerenveen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Sep 2027
David Zima 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.
Maxence Rivera 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.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heerenveen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Maarten Paes 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Heerenveen and NEC, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.77 — 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.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heerenveen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Heerenveen will try again when the window opens; De Graafschap may not be selling by then.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Dylan Vente had Heerenveen level again within 4 minutes, and AZ never got to play with a lead at all.
Heerenveen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Feyenoord, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Heerenveen 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heerenveen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Willem II paid $1.0M and Heerenveen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Dylan Vente 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Niko Wood is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
David Zima 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Torino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have shaken hands with Feyenoord; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Heerenveen asked and Millwall said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Willem II waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Heerenveen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$4.3M on the table at Sparta Rotterdam. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
David Zima 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Heerenveen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Heerenveen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dylan Vente 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.
MVV Maastricht paid $350.0K and Heerenveen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Zima 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Heerenveen will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Zima 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.
Heerenveen asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
Dylan Vente 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Oyen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Heerenveen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Ringo Meerveld 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hristiyan Petrov, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Oyen 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Min trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maarten Paes signs something — a contract at Heerenveen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heerenveen, another week without a signature from Bernt Klaverboer.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 49 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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; Heerenveen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maarten Paes 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.
“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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Sten Kremers’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Alcione Milano. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Oyen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Virgil De Ligt after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Massien Ghaddari did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Min, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Oyen 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heerenveen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Heerenveen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacob Trenskow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Virgil De Ligt was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Heerenveen dressing room was either.
Nobody at Heerenveen 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.
0‑3 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heerenveen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sten Kremers has been having a lot of them.
“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 Heerenveen know it.
In brief
SquadLuca Oyen falls out with a teammate over standards
Mitchel Bakker 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Oyen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Min trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.