50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Heracles
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Samy Moumni 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 words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Emmen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Heracles is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with Heerenveen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Mike te Wierik 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 words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heracles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” FC Eindhoven had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heracles 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. Heracles have done the hard part with Vitesse, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Heracles know it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Heracles people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Go Ahead Eagles pay $2.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Heracles heard it as anything else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with Utrecht, 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. PSV have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike te Wierik 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.
In brief
Squad12 new faces, and Heracles are still learning each other
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heracles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Heracles will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djevencio van der Kust 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.
Daniël van Kaam 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.
Heracles 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.
Add another name to the list: ADO Den Haag have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leco Zeevalkink. The answer from Heracles has not changed — yet.
The clubs have shaken hands with PSV; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Takuya Uchida has just signed for Heracles, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Eindhoven have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 loan enquiry to Sparta Rotterdam: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Ogenia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heracles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everybody at Heracles saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Mike te Wierik 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.
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 at Heracles 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 9 on 38 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Heracles, and 4 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Nazareno Bazán Vera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Heracles pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
7.94, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Heracles had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad24 Apr 2028
8 new faces, and Heracles are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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 Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heracles, another week without a signature from Aymen Sliti.
Something was said to Walid Ould-Chikh and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
Player ratingsIsaac Babadi beats them one at a time
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $8.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Feyenoord drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
1 for Chris-Kévin Nadje, marked 7.64, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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 easiest signature of my career.” Djevencio van der Kust and Heracles agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mike te Wierik 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.
Something was said to Sem Scheperman and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.37 — 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Nathan Berghuis, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Fabian de Keijzer is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabian de Keijzer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Heracles man
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Heracles 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑1 away to the standard of Basaksehir. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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.
The goal that put Groningen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Heracles equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
2‑0 against Oțelul Galați, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Pep Biel was at the centre of the description.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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.” Mike te Wierik and Heracles agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sem Scheperman has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Add another name to the list: De Graafschap have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sem Scheperman. The answer from Heracles has not changed — yet.
Heracles had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Albacete, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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. Twente have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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 offer from Emmen for Sem Scheperman 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sava Čestić was one of the reasons people came, and $3.8M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: BK Hacken keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heracles can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
36 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Heracles are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newcastle Jets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Heracles is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with Beerschot, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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 Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Heracles is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Mees de Wit 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.33 for the rest of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heracles can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Oliver Edvardsen 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mimeirhel Benita has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heracles told Mees de Wit something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.83 for the rest 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Mees de Wit 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: Sem Scheperman. 2‑0 against Volendam, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match24 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Heracles. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jeff Reine-Adélaïde.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mees de Wit. 1‑0 against Go Ahead Eagles, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nathan Berghuis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
At 23 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.
Djevencio van der Kust 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Naci Ünüvar 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.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Mike te Wierik 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Nathan Berghuis could afford to be generous.
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 Erik Ahlstrand 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 Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
Damon Mirani 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erik Ahlstrand, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sem Scheperman'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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Nathan Berghuis to a room that had heard them before.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and NAC Breda were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Heracles close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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.
Everything agreed with Anderlecht, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bodo/Glimt keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees de Wit 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.
Mimeirhel Benita 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Thomas Bruns had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Mike te Wierik 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.24, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to PSV; Heracles go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PSV is saying, and nobody at Heracles is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Heracles know it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Verrips was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alen Dizdarević has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heracles have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Verrips 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.” Sem Scheperman has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 12, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
The dugout28 Dec 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 0‑3 Nathan Berghuis left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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 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.
Nobody at Heracles is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Volendam next, and one man in the Heracles dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Sem Scheperman, marked 7.73, 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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against NEC; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Heracles have no good answer.
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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. Mimeirhel Benita 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.
8.26. 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Sem Scheperman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nathan Berghuis on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.