Marked for Thomas Cox
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Bart Schenkeveld out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TOP Oss will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Kas de Wit damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Shaqueel van Persie scored in the 85th minute, Jong AZ had already begun thinking about the journey home, and TOP Oss took the lot.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Shaqueel van Persie, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shaqueel van Persie and TOP Oss agree another 5 years.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A falling-out at TOP Oss
Robin Schouten and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
He is 21 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shaqueel van Persie. 1‑0 against Jong AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wout Gravenberch on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Bart Schenkeveld out for 95 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TOP Oss will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The knee: Kas de Wit out for 102 days
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Rui Mendes in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maurilio de Lannoy commits to TOP Oss for another 4 years.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maurilio de Lannoy, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Jong AZ next, and one man in the TOP Oss dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market15 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kian Visser’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Darhein Sayala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at TOP Oss 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Thomas Cox asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jul 2027
81 days out for Nicolas Gétaz after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TOP Oss will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Jul 2027
TOP Oss say no — this time
The offer from Willem II for Mauresmo Hinoke 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Rui Mendes in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at TOP Oss
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shaqueel van Persie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stijn Meijer, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Mike Havekotte knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mike Havekotte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market26 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kian Visser’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
106 days out for Nicolas Gétaz after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TOP Oss will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at TOP Oss
Bart Schenkeveld 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shaqueel van Persie 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Nick Twisk gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
TOP Oss sign 3 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market5 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Justin Ogenia knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TOP Oss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Rui Mendes 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shaqueel van Persie 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market22 Mar 2027
No place for Thomas Cox in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thomas Cox has his answer from TOP Oss; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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 dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Denzel Owusu 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Wout Gravenberch was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the TOP Oss dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Thomas Cox
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iliass Bel Hassani, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over RKC Waalwijk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Rui Mendes
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. TOP Oss had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Wout Gravenberch, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.