Marked for Casper Widell
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 32, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Calvin Raatsie: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Excelsior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cambuur moved on, Isaque Sousa Monte reports back to Excelsior, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee is $520.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. ADO Den Haag drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Excelsior know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Lewis Schouten 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kiyani Zeggen, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Excelsior
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Excelsior are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.75 — 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Shots: 15, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joey Sleegers, and the manager let it.
Match26 Dec 2026
It needed Lewis Schouten to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Utrecht, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
89% of the income goes out in wages at Excelsior
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Casper Widell asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Irakli Yegoian 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Feyenoord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stan Henderikx, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.21 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Casper Widell knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Casper Widell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Noah Naujoks
Defensive actions: 32. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gyan de Regt 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Martijn Berden
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Casper Widell
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Noah Naujoks
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Excelsior right now
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.93 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Roda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
David Kalokoh 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 148% of everything Excelsior earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lewis Schouten
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 32 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excelsior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 9.31 — 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Groningen made Excelsior work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Casper Widell
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Noah Naujoks knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noah Naujoks trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gyan de Regt 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Szymon Włodarczyk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Excelsior.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lennard Hartjes, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Arman Durmiši, 18 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.