“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Groningen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Casper Widell. The answer from Excelsior has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mats Deijl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Georginio Strootman 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. Virgil Simons is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
The deal with Feyenoord 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.
A season average of 7.05 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mats Deijl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Excelsior 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Aymen Sliti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Naujoks 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Excelsior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mats Deijl 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.
An average of 7.05 in a first team he is several years too young for. Excelsior have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gyan de Regt 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.
Szymon Włodarczyk 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 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mats Deijl 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Excelsior has been clear about where Rick Meissen stands, which is more than many ever get.
Aymen Sliti 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 Mats Deijl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Excelsior has been clear about where Gyan de Regt stands, which is more than many ever get.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
“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 Excelsior know 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 Excelsior can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.03 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.
Mats Deijl 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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Excelsior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aymen Sliti did not need any: 8.56, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Heerenveen for Casper Widell 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.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Excelsior 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Position 16, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mats Deijl 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Excelsior can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mats Deijl 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.
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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Mats Deijl 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aymen Sliti. 1‑0 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout12 Oct 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.” Rick Gakpo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Crewe Alexandra; Excelsior go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charlton Athletic have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric da Silva Moreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ajax 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Excelsior 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Utrecht defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.