“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 16 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
1 for Noah Naujoks, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aymen Sliti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Malachi Sharpe has just signed for Excelsior, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Schouten 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 Excelsior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 goals in one match, Irakli Yegoian on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Excelsior and NEC.
Irakli Yegoian scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to NEC, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gyan de Regt 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.
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Virgil Blind left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Simon Janssen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against NEC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gyan de Regt 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 Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Irakli Yegoian to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Heracles, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Virgil Blind was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Excelsior dressing room was either.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Simon Janssen
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.
“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 Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Excelsior close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 4 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.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gyan de Regt 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.
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gyan de Regt 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.
Excelsior asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Virgil Blind after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Excelsior offered $9.2M; Feyenoord 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gyan de Regt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Tijmen Holla 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.
Excelsior have made the call to Southampton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.