It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Younes Taha 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Twente are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Daan Rots is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Twente would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Feyenoord in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Twente, another week without a signature from Nick de Groot.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Daouda Weidmann’s exile
The dugoutNick de Groot knocks on the manager’s door
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daouda Weidmann provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.40, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danny 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.
Julian Geerts 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Helgi Fróði Ingason 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Ayoub Oufkir is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Helmond Sport will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Ayoub Oufkir, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Sem Dekkers delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Dekkers scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Maxence Rivera 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danny 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.
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.
“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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Wesley Depay kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Helgi Fróði Ingason is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Helmond Sport can pretend not to have heard.
Maxence Rivera 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 Danny Bakker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Helmond Sport can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ramiz Zerrouki 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myron Boadu 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Nobody at Twente 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Twente has been clear about where Naoufal Bannis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Twente know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Twente needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ayoub Oufkir did not need any: 8.06, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.63, 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.
Maxence Rivera 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danny 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.
He is 22 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Jong AZ; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Helmond Sport this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 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.
Helmond Sport asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 34, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ayoub Oufkir did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
1 for Daouda Weidmann, marked 7.99, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Helmond Sport this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Helmond Sport can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Ayoub Oufkir, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 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.
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 7.91 for the rest of it.
Maxence Rivera 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.
Helmond Sport asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flor Van Den Eynden 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.
Daouda Weidmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Danny 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Julian Geerts has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thomas Poll signs something — a contract at Helmond Sport or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Helmond Sport this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Maik Łukowicz has left for Teruel in a $350.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Weidmann 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Helmond Sport. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 12, 59 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
Alen Dizdarević has left for Go Ahead Eagles in a $600.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Helmond Sport training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danny 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.
Helmond Sport asked and Go Ahead Eagles said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Helmond Sport will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad12 Jul 2027
7 new faces, and Helmond Sport 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.
Helmond Sport have made the call to Borussia Mönchengladbach. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Helmond Sport would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Twente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Lars Unnerstall 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.
Nobody at Twente 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Twente, another week without a signature from Daouda Weidmann.
Robbin Weijenberg 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.
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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daouda Weidmann will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Twente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sondre Ørjasæter signs something — a contract at Twente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Crysencio Summerville has written the date down.
Position 5 on 60 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daouda Weidmann will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Twente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 7.75 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Twente know it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Ramiz Zerrouki 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson is on it.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Myron Boadu takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myron Boadu provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ricky van Wolfswinkel provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Twente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Nagel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Go Ahead Eagles tried to reorganise, Twente did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Twente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ajax scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Jensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Lars Unnerstall is on it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Go Ahead Eagles keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MVV Maastricht waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Twente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to RKC Waalwijk 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.
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 7.70 for the rest of it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Twente heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.3M — a club that wants Liam van Gelderen enough to be asked twice.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $13.5M has been paid because Crysencio Summerville is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The offer went to Heerenveen 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: MVV Maastricht have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daouda Weidmann. The answer from Twente has not changed — yet.
Twente asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Wout Weghorst 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tim Gakpo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Daouda Weidmann is on it.
“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 Twente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Twente agree another 5 years.
Lars Unnerstall 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.
2‑3 to Go Ahead Eagles, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bart van Rooij 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
With 5 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 dugout9 Nov 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 2‑3 Tim Gakpo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Telstar are out and Twente go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match28 Oct 2026
Leart Bekolli wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Leart Bekolli found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Telstar went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Leart Bekolli did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Daouda Weidmann, marked 7.75, 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.
“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 Twente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Wout Weghorst 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ricky van Wolfswinkel provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Twente can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daouda Weidmann, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tim Gakpo chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.