Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zwolle will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Younes Namli 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorthy Mokio 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Willem II defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jorthy Mokio signs something — a contract at Zwolle or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Elias Sørensen
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 128 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Elias Sørensen has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 151 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Graves 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.
“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 Zwolle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Dylan Mbayo 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zwolle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Jorthy Mokio 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.
Marked 5.61. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Marked 5.66. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Zwolle scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sam van de Camp did not need any: 8.14, 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 Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Jorthy Mokio 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: Sam van de Camp. 2‑1 against Heerenveen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Damian van der Haar scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Younes Namli 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 18 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Dylan Mbayo 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Younes Namli 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 Dec 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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 watch every Zwolle game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ADO Den Haag runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Thijs Oosting was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Mbayo 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 Zwolle game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cambuur runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Younes Namli 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zwolle, another week without a signature from Thijs Oosting.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zwolle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Simon Graves 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zwolle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Simon Graves 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 watch every Zwolle game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Twente runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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 watch every Zwolle game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cambuur runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tom de Graaff is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Thijs Oosting has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tom de Graaff 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.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Graves 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
SquadSimon Graves falls out with a teammate over standards
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Simon Graves 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Simon Graves 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. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zwolle is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lucas Rosa 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. Nick Dobben is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jamiro Monteiro commits to Zwolle for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Thijs Oosting 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tristan Gooijer 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Thijs Oosting 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tom de Graaff 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.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vukašin Bogdanović provided it, and the 7.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobias Sommer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zwolle the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 32 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tobias Sommer has agreed terms with Utrecht for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Younes Namli 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.
2‑3 to Twente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
Nobody at Zwolle 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zwolle they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
Marked 8.62 — 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.
Nobody at Zwolle 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.
Two goals and a mark of 7.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Utrecht for Tobias Sommer 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fernando Ferreira is living that version at Zwolle, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Thijs Oosting 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tom de Graaff 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.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Michel Driezen is living that version at Zwolle, and it tends to show in the first month.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ryan Thomas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Björn Mellema is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zwolle have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thijs Oosting 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zwolle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jan Faberski did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zwolle has been clear about where Ryan Thomas stands, which is more than many ever get.
Jan Faberski, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Seth Annink is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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: Jan Faberski. 2‑1 against Groningen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Thijs Oosting 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.
Jan Faberski, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Younes Namli 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Graves 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zwolle, another week without a signature from Tobias Sommer.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Thijs Oosting
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Thijs Oosting 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.
Younes Namli 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tom de Graaff 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zwolle told Simon Graves something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Simon Graves 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Naj Lulić 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Oumar Diouf could not do
Younes Namli 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Zwolle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thijs Oosting 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Tom de Graaff knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thijs Oosting 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zwolle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.