“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 ratings10 Jan 2028
Geronimo Venloo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 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.
Mohammed Tahiri 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tyrone Owusu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Telstar has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Telstar, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Telstar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Eindhoven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Geronimo Venloo is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Telstar will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Telstar has been clear about where Steven van der Sloot stands, which is more than many ever get.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tyrone Owusu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jeroen Malen could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Geronimo Venloo, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mart Remans has his answer from Telstar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Jeroen Malen on the draw
14 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
5 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.
Mohammed Tahiri 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arnaut Stengs has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Telstar have done the hard part with Ajax, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Telstar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Telstar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rojendro Oudsten 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 chase for Filip Janssen ended with $410.0K changing hands and Roda out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rojendro Oudsten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Telstar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The deal with Ajax is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Telstar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rojendro Oudsten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Doğan Gölpek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mart Remans has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Telstar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Kyan Lever 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tyrick Bodak has his answer from Telstar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Amir Absalem 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 Kyan Lever was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Telstar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Position 18 and 17 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.
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.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The deal with Utrecht is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Geronimo Venloo 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 name of Daan Reiziger has come up in conversations Telstar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Telstar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Quenten Attigah is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Telstar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Telstar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pim Bruggink has just signed for Telstar, and for once the answer mattered.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Telstar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑1 Jeroen Malen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Utrecht next, and one man in the Telstar dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Amir Absalem 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jeroen Malen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Telstar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yanick van Osch has written the date down.
Telstar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Schalke 04, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Telstar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Roshon van Eijma 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.
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.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $50.0K — a club that wants Rik Suur enough to be asked twice.
Telstar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Beerschot, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$49.0K was the most the club would pay and Sparta Rotterdam 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.
Telstar asked and Viking said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mart Remans 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mart Remans
0‑4 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mart Remans has just signed for Telstar, and for once the answer mattered.
Telstar have gone to Sparta Rotterdam 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.
The name of Rojendro Oudsten has come up in conversations Telstar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Roshon van Eijma 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.