Marked for Sem Scheperman
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Nov 2026
9 matches without a win for Heracles
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Heracles are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Feyenoord, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match11 Nov 2026
Heracles bow out of the cup
Vitesse go through and Heracles go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Heracles
Luka Kulenović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mitchel Bakker 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Sem Scheperman
“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.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by PSV, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match7 Nov 2026
7 matches without a win for Heracles
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Heracles are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Heracles
Luka Kulenović 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitchel Bakker 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Owen De Ligt is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Heracles 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.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Ryan Blind to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
Heracles make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Heracles have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Heracles
Luka Kulenović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toluca have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mimeirhel Benita’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Heracles.
Match19 Sep 2026
Heracles keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Mimeirhel Benita was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sem Scheperman, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Heracles
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
A row about effort at Heracles
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑3 to Ajax, 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Utrecht 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Ajax, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Heracles
Luka Kulenović 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Ahlstrand 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sem Scheperman, and the manager let it.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.