Marked for Thomas Kok
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Cambuur
7 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mathieu Maertens 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 Sep 2026
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Cambuur are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match19 Sep 2026
De Graafschap left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Thomas Kok gets it from the manager
“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 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cambuur will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Kaj Ramsteijn dropped after a run of poor form
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.
In brief
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Looking ahead
The leaders are next for Cambuur
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Thomas Kok
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Market
The shop window has Tony Rölke in it
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cambuur close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Cambuur
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cambuur are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Cambuur
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clock did what Heerenveen would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Devid Bouah is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Devid Bouah has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market7 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Juventus, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mathieu Maertens 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 targets24 Aug 2026
$140.0K 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Cambuur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thijs Jansen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Home comes calling for Jamal Amofa
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Cambuur have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Jamal Amofa is still paying for one afternoon at Cambuur
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Teun De Jong on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Kaj Ramsteijn dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $161.0K — a club that wants Damián van der Vaart enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismaël Baouf commits to Cambuur for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Cambuur
Mathieu Maertens 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Cambuur have gone to Ajax 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Cambuur
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Cambuur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Virgil Aké 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Reuven Niemeijer and De Graafschap agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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 De Graafschap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim El Kadiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
De Graafschap asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Ties Wieggers's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at De Graafschap
11 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Ajax 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Feyenoord: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tygo Grotenhuis has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at De Graafschap.