From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Nov 2027
Yoel asks to leave AZ “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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Sven Mijnans 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
A bad afternoon for AZ against NEC
1-2 to NEC , and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Yoel Yoel asks to leave AZ
Loan watch1 Nov 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AZ , and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zico Buurmeester commits to AZ for another 4 years.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Nobody left the AZ dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Training ground row involving Enoch Mastoras
Tempers went at AZ this week. Nothing a hard session and a quiet word cannot repair, though the story got out all the same.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Troy Parrott . AZ will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The spotlight tightens on Troy Parrott
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Aug 2027
AZ cannot stop winning6 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Yoel asks to leave AZ “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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market23 Aug 2027
Willem II are about to pick up the phoneA conversation is coming this week. AZ will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match21 Aug 2027
Heerenveen made AZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 3-2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Troy Parrott 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enoch Mastoras and AZ agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Heracles to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
Mattersburg come back empty-handedThe bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.30 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AZ know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market2 Aug 2027
Ayoub Oufkir wants to know where this is going“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 AZ hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Aug 2027
Twente pay $540.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
AZ release $2.5M for the managerThe board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I did not go to KV Kortrijk to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AZ have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market5 Jul 2027
Roda come back empty-handedThe bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A season average of 7.30 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AZ know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market5 Jul 2027
Maarten Paes wants more than AZ are offering“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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
AZ release $2.5M for the managerThe board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Voices raised on the AZ training ground
Two players, one bad tackle and a session that had to be stopped. It was over in a minute; it was outside the gates in an hour.
In brief
Squad
The manager makes an example of Yoel
Market
Talks stall between AZ and Kilian Nikiéma
Squad
Somebody is after Patati ’s shirt
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Jeroen Zoet , and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market28 Jun 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AZ will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Kees Smit 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
The Maarten Paes talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market28 Jun 2027
Yoel placed on the listAZ have made Yoel available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 May 2027
Matěj Šín says AZ went back on their word“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 May 2027
106 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom3 May 2027
$2.5M on the table at AZ
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Matěj Šín Matěj Šín says AZ went back on their word
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZ and fight for my place.” 17 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
Squad3 May 2027
Kees Smit 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Yoel 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Maarten Paes
There were 9 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
AZ get the job done against Feyenoord A 1-0 win over Feyenoord , earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Yoel
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. AZ have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
AZ will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Jizz Hornkamp hands in a written request“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Jordy Clasie has come up in conversations AZ were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market10 Aug 2026
Billy van Duijl has left for Ajax in a $3.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordy Clasie and AZ agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
PSV come back empty-handedThe bid was some way short and AZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jordy Clasie 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.
In brief
Squad
Kees Smit gets it from the manager
The terraces
The spotlight tightens on Yoel
The terraces
Supporters make their feelings known about Mees de Wit
Squad
Somebody is after Hobie Verhulst ’s shirt