Fee agreed, wages agreed, and RKC Waalwijk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AZ 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 The request is on a desk at AZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
AZ have gone to Feyenoord 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.
Ruben van Bommel 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.
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 Kees Smit is on it.
In brief
The dugoutIsak Jensen knocks on the manager’s door
The chase for Devid Bouah ended with $10.6M changing hands and Cambuur out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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.
Ruben van Bommel 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 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 offer from Ajax for Thijs Jansen 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.
Bart van Rooij 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabian Kunze 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Cambuur is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AZ people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Twente had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.2M — a club that wants Devid Bouah enough to be asked twice.
Ruben van Bommel 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.
AZ asked and VVV-Venlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Twente paid $11.8M and Cambuur took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with Twente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Kunze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Feyenoord for Kees Smit 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.
AZ have gone to Cambuur 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.
AZ and Utrecht have settled on $1.3M. 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 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.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Lequincio Zeefuik again, and this time the name on the line is Twente. AZ are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 name of Devid Bouah has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cambuur hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Bart van Rooij and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
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.
Cambuur asked and Rosario Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Bendegúz Kovács 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.
Squad29 May 2028
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.
The loan was meant to give him football. 4 games and 0 goals later he is back at Cambuur no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cambuur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cambuur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cambuur. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nigel Thomas has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Position 1 on 84 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.
22 goals in 37 games at Emmen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cambuur updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bart van Rooij 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cambuur are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 May 2028
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.
83 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.94, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ali Donny Sylla did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Bart van Rooij and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Donny Sylla. 2‑1 against Jong AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nicolas Haas will call it something else in private.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cambuur heard it as anything 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 Cambuur 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 Fabian Kunze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cambuur told Mark Diemers something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cambuur can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Bart van Rooij 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 Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“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.
“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 Cambuur know it.
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.
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.
21 goals in 32 games at Emmen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cambuur updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nicolas Haas 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Nicky Souren for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cambuur will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. MVV Maastricht had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Bart van Rooij 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 Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Quincy Aké is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kenneth Lang is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Donny Bergwijn is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
8 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.
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 Thijs Jansen is on it.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.98, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
At 20 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cambuur hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Bendegúz Kovács and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Jong Ajax held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Cambuur answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Rodney Kongolo
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Jorn Berkhout's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Cambuur until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabian Kunze 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.
44 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.
“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.
4 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.
Bart van Rooij 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 Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cambuur asked and VVV-Venlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The fee is $2.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cambuur drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Utrecht were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
51 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bendegúz Kovács provided it, and the 9.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bart van Rooij 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
51 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 9.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.77, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cambuur can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Utrecht had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bendegúz Kovács provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Don Bolsius has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mees Adrichem has agreed terms with Helmond Sport for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
72 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.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fabian Kunze has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cambuur had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Up for the corner, and Devid Bouah delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Devid Bouah scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Add another name to the list: Twente have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Diyae Jermoumi. The answer from Cambuur has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Kunze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
80 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bendegúz Kovács provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nicolas Haas 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bendegúz Kovács 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cambuur told Mark Diemers something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Jorn Berkhout
88 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.62, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ali Donny Sylla did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Bart van Rooij 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Thijs Jansen
Thomas Bruns damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. MVV Maastricht will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 20 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Dean Zuidwijk 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.
Thomas Bruns damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A season average of 7.56 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cambuur know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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.
7.97, 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.
130 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cambuur scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamal Amofa 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oscar Gloukh 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oscar Gloukh. 1‑0 against TOP Oss, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsOscar Gloukh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
146 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.
“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.
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.
Bart van Rooij 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.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
155 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bendegúz Kovács provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Bart van Rooij 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cambuur and Jong Ajax in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bendegúz Kovács. 4‑2 against Jong Ajax, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jamal Amofa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
162 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jamal Amofa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jong Ajax 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cambuur can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Bart van Rooij 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 21 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.
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.
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.
6 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cambuur hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Cambuur know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
SquadDiyae Jermoumi falls out with a teammate over standards
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nigel Thomas is living that version at Cambuur, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 25 gone
That is the business done at Cambuur until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cambuur heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
Bendegúz Kovács, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.85
A mark of 9.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The fee is $6.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Twente drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Jong PSV had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with Twente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Cambuur asked and Twente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$1.8M on the table at VVV-Venlo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Cambuur moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Nathan Babel, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Cambuur had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Midtjylland, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cambuur are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
Cambuur asked and Twente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
FC Midtjylland have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cambuur will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A loan enquiry to FC Midtjylland: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Cambuur have paid $1.7M for Rodney Kongolo, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
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.
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.
6 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutLucas Jetten knocks on the manager's door
Emmen have accepted the money. What Cambuur do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
Oscar Gloukh 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cambuur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicky Souren signs something — a contract at Cambuur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Cambuur that is a harder question to answer.
“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.
The offer went to Emmen 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.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cambuur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 2, 75 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
Cambuur 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cambuur can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
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.
Cambuur asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A loan enquiry to Zaragoza: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Cambuur 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and De Graafschap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cambuur 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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bendegúz Kovács is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The fee is $870.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Heracles drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Cambuur 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
19 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
Rik Mulders 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cambuur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 25 games at Telstar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cambuur updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cambuur. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
33 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 May 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nathan Babel to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutNo place for Danny Bakker on the big day
The dugoutRai Vloet asks for a word with the manager
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 ran out of time with Den Bosch. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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 19, he is averaging 7.64, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Cambuur offered $57.0K; NAC Breda 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bendegúz Kovács did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Cambuur and Jong AZ, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
A season average of 7.51 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cambuur know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Marked 7.85 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Nicky Souren 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Position 2, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
He is 19 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 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cambuur.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Nathan Babel kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.