He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $407.6K of what Cambuur paid for Evan Rottier is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Cambuur and Willem II have settled on $690.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 22 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. NAC Breda moved on, Jesper Tielemans reports back to Cambuur, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cambuur asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ayoub Oufkir 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Cambuur offered $7.9M; 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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PSV keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Cambuur have gone to AZ 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.
In brief
Boardroom7 academy players handed senior numbers at Cambuur
SquadDevid Bouah falls out with a teammate over standards
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with Feyenoord, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Cambuur have gone to Go Ahead Eagles 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Devid Bouah 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cedric Hatenboer commits to Cambuur for another 4 years.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Sofyan Amrabat is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur 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.” Cambuur 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ozan Kökçü 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 Evan Rottier has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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 Cambuur 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
23 clean sheets and the golden glove for Matěj Kovář
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 23 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dies Janse 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 Ozan Kökçü trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ismaël Baouf signs something — a contract at Cambuur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Cambuur 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Rik Mulders’s negotiating for him
The dugoutThe manager makes Evan Rottier a promise
BoardroomThe Cambuur production line keeps running
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 May 2029
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oskar Sivertsen. 1‑0 against Jong AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Thijs Jansen will call it something else in private.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesper Tielemans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joey Sleegers and Cambuur agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
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.
“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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathieu Maertens'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 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.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cambuur 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Almere City next, and one man in the Cambuur dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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 Evan Rottier has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Oskar Sivertsen 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.
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.
The offer from Heerenveen for Devid Bouah 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.
Cambuur and Ajax have settled on $760.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The fee is $890.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almere City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hénin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dies Janse 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 Aug 2028
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.
Cambuur asked and Servette 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 name of Jesper Tielemans has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mark Diemers 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cambuur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The name of Yanis Musuayi has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Cambuur asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.