“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 De Graafschap know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robin Aké after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
The dugoutJannes Wieckhoff is still being punished for one mistake
MarketA year in the wrong dressing room for Rick Jonkers
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Thom van Bergen scored in the 88th minute, Jong AZ had already begun thinking about the journey home, and De Graafschap took the lot.
Remco Balk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Ouwejan 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 7.91. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Robin Aké kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Cambuur, and it could have been more.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Remco Balk takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remco Balk provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Reuven Niemeijer 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation De Graafschap did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Ouwejan 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 De Graafschap game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Persebaya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutFedde de Jong is still being punished for one mistake
Boardroom88% of the income goes out in wages at De Graafschap
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Remco Balk 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Luca Everink 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.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
De Graafschap close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 7 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about De Graafschap and Jong Utrecht in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jonah te Fruchte has agreed terms with Telstar for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Levi Schoppema 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright van Dijk 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Remco Balk is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. De Graafschap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Rotterdam is saying, and nobody at De Graafschap is enjoying the guessing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what De Graafschap can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Persis for Isaac Compaore 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.
Remco Balk 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NEC have kept their man, and De Graafschap go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and De Graafschap have had the benefit of it.
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.
Add another name to the list: Fortuna Sittard have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nolan Martens. The answer from De Graafschap has not changed — yet.
De Graafschap asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ties Wieggers has his answer from De Graafschap; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at De Graafschap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Reuven Niemeijer scored in the 87th minute, Almere City had already begun thinking about the journey home, and De Graafschap took the lot.
At 18 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.
Remco Balk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Everink 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: Reuven Niemeijer. 1‑0 against Almere City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Reuven Niemeijer provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.83, 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.
Remco Balk 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.
19 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about De Graafschap and Jong Ajax in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Thom van Bergen 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.
Remco Balk 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.
0‑1 to ADO Den Haag, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright van Dijk 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.
9 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
105% of the income goes out in wages at De Graafschap
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I watch every De Graafschap game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Persebaya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Robin Aké to a room that had heard them before.
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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Stijn Bultman did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marked 6.62 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
At 21 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. De Graafschap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fedde de Jong 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ties Wieggers
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7.16, 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.
Remco Balk 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about De Graafschap and Jong PSV in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
In brief
SquadBright van Dijk falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jevon Simons
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Remco Balk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at De Graafschap has been clear about where Rowan Besselink stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Nathan Kaninda is on it.
Jong PSV next, and one man in the De Graafschap dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kyano Kwint trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Something was said to Adam Lundkvist and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
91% of the income goes out in wages at De Graafschap
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Remco Balk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Luca Everink 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. Nathan Kaninda 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.
10 combined actions and 7.52. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Minute 107, against Feyenoord, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Remco Balk 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 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.
17 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robin Aké after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Milan Smits's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thom van Bergen provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Remco Balk 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jannes Wieckhoff 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Robin Aké, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. De Graafschap have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bright van Dijk has, at De Graafschap, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luca Everink 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.
Bright van Dijk is 17, and De Graafschap have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at De Graafschap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fedde de Jong’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and De Graafschap needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A new face in his position, and Kyano Kwint suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. De Graafschap have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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 Tygo Grotenhuis has written the date down.
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 has re-ordered his thinking and Stijn Bultman 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the De Graafschap dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robin Aké after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Remco Balk 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.
At 22 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kyano Kwint has his answer from De Graafschap; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
15 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.
Remco Balk 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
Luca Everink 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robin Aké after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A brace, and Remco Balk takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remco Balk provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and De Graafschap go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jannes Wieckhoff 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 2‑0, Robin Aké could afford to be generous.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.7M — a club that wants Thom van Bergen enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and De Graafschap go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Reuven Niemeijer 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 Louka Vanderbruggen has come up in conversations De Graafschap were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
0‑1 to RKC Waalwijk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Pabai 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 offer went to Groningen this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Volendam this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
TOP Oss made De Graafschap work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mark Pabai 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Remco Balk is living that version at De Graafschap, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Willem II for Louka Vanderbruggen 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.
Reuven Niemeijer 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Everink was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
De Graafschap asked and KV Mechelen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jasper De Vrij 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.