33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dordrecht lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Helmond Sport spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dordrecht can pretend not to have heard.
Dordrecht asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Dordrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léon Bergsma 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Seraing have paid $5.4M for Nick Venema, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Noah Solheid 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.
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: Nick Venema from Dordrecht for $5.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Seraing asked and Universitatea Cluj said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Seung-gyun Bae did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $144.6K — a club that wants Imran Nazih enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dordrecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 goals in one match, Nick Venema on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dordrecht and Jong PSV.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nick Venema was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.85. 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.
Dordrecht offered $140.0K; NAC Breda said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
$5.4M settles it between the clubs for Nick Venema
Dordrecht have accepted the money. What Seraing do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Noah Solheid 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.
Thierno Gaye 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Paulo da Silva 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
$7.5M was the most the club would pay and Feyenoord 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.
The phone has started ringing about Nick Venema again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. Dordrecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
Dordrecht have gone to NAC Breda 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.
Lucas Woudenberg 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 Aug 2026
Words at Dordrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nick Venema 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Thijs Kraaijeveld 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thijs Kraaijeveld. 1‑0 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Reda Boultam has, at Seraing, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Seraing have gone to Dordrecht 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Seraing have done the hard part with Anderlecht, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Seraing had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Anderlecht, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Noah Solheid and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Édouard Soumah-Abbad 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.
Seraing asked and Union SG said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Ntanda 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 Dordrecht know it.
Lucas Woudenberg 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 Aug 2026
Words at Dordrecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nick Venema 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Dordrecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Still no offer on the table, and Nick Venema’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dordrecht, another week without a signature from Mica Pinto.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jurre van Aken trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.