“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 The request is on a desk at Vitesse, and it is not being withdrawn.
Remco Balk 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Levent Mercan 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and Vitesse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Emmen go through and Vitesse go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Position 2, 34 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Connor van den Berg, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Denzel De Roon to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vitesse has been clear about where Alexander Büttner stands, which is more than many ever get.
13 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.
“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 Vitesse hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Remco Balk 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.
This is not rotation. Nathan Markelo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vitesse is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levent Mercan 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 happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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 Vitesse, and it is not being withdrawn.
Remco Balk 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.
This is not rotation. Nathan Markelo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vitesse is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levent Mercan 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 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 Vitesse know it.
Willem II next, and one man in the Vitesse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutDylan Tevreden has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mitchel Bakker provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vitesse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Anselmo García Mac Nulty 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 Solomon Bonnah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitesse 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.” Vitesse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Remco Balk 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.
5 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 needed Kévin Monzialo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against MVV Maastricht, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Steffen 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.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vitesse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Jong Ajax the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Vitesse will enjoy reviewing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vitesse people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitesse can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brondby is saying, and nobody at Vitesse is enjoying the guessing.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mitchel Bakker wants continental football; whether Vitesse can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Remco Balk 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vitesse has been clear about where Valon Zumberi stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I watch every Vitesse game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Almere City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitesse can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Radomiak Radom for João Pinto 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vitesse heard it as anything else.
Remco Balk 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 67 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Vitesse, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kay Otakan is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Vitesse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitchel Bakker is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Vitesse is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vitesse told Alen Dizdarević something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vitesse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
VVV-Venlo next, and one man in the Vitesse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Vitesse can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitchel Bakker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Vitesse know it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Kévin Monzialo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Jong AZ will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vitesse were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Jens van Baaren, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 20 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Elias Huth in the middle of it, and Jong AZ unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Mitchel Bakker 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.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Emmen defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Jozhua Vertrouwd 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 Mitchel Bakker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitchel Bakker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Denzel De Roon on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
De Graafschap next, and one man in the Vitesse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Geronimo Londar is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Remco Balk 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 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 Vitesse know it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pontus Dahbo did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Vitesse and Jong AZ, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Remco Balk at his very best
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noa Dundas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nino Zonneveld is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitesse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.83, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
9 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.