26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sturm Graz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otar Kiteishvili 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Sturm Graz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sturm Graz have made the call to Paris Saint-Germain. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Excelsior is running low.
“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Excelsior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Grasshopper is saying, and nobody at Excelsior is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aymen Sliti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gyan de Regt trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 3, 36 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otar Kiteishvili 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 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.
7 goals in 34 games at Excelsior — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sturm Graz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marlon Mustapha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sturm Graz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 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 Jon Gorenc Stankovič signs something — a contract at Sturm Graz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excelsior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The mood at Excelsior has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Plug 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.
Position 3, 36 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
At 21, Axel Kayombo is already the best thing here
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Sturm Graz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otar Kiteishvili 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 Otar Kiteishvili is on it.
7 goals in 34 games at Excelsior — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sturm Graz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A 1‑4 beating by Vitesse was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The mood at Excelsior has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Excelsior is running low.
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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sturm Graz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 36 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.
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.
Nobody at Sturm Graz 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.
7 goals in 33 games at Excelsior — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sturm Graz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Gyan de Regt 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.
Something was said to Gonçalo Borges and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadA Excelsior teenager takes the young player award
Seedy Jatta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otar Kiteishvili 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.
7 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.
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 Nelson Weiper is on it.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sturm Graz could ask drops and the wages Jon Gorenc Stankovič can ask rise.
6 goals in 32 games at Excelsior — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sturm Graz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Đorđe Jovanović and Sturm Graz agree another 4 years.
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
“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; Sturm Graz are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Sturm Graz 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.
2 appearances, 1 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Sturm Graz will have this month.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niklas Geyrhofer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Gyan de Regt 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.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
9 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.
“I watch every Excelsior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NEC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excelsior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Braga is saying, and nobody at Excelsior is enjoying the guessing.
Paik Seung-Ho 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 Gonçalo Borges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Metz have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sturm Graz will try again when the window opens; Rapid Wien may not be selling by then.
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sturm Graz, another week without a signature from Jon Gorenc Stankovič.
“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 Sturm Graz, and 2 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Jon Gorenc Stankovič is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jon Gorenc Stankovič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Excelsior have done the hard part with Birmingham, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewis Schouten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vitesse will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Moustafa Moustafa has pre-agreed a move to Excelsior, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eibar have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Szymon Włodarczyk 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Schouten 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Excelsior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Noah Naujoks delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Noah Naujoks scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Yegoian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jeroen Malen after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Excelsior lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Emre Ünüvar is still being punished for one mistake
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewis Schouten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Many Le Toux is 20, and Excelsior have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Otar Kiteishvili and Sturm Graz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otar Kiteishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sturm Graz, another week without a signature from Jon Gorenc Stankovič.
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 Jon Gorenc Stankovič is on it.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
Minute 94, against Vitesse, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Excelsior told Gyan de Regt something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Szymon Włodarczyk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aymen Sliti 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.
“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 dugout23 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 0‑1 Jeroen Malen left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vitesse in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
Szymon Włodarczyk 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jimmy Martens has just signed for Excelsior, and for once the answer mattered.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Aymen Sliti 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.
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 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.
“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.
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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Szymon Włodarczyk 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mika Peters has just signed for Excelsior, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aymen Sliti 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 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.
0‑1 to Ajax, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rick Meissen 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.
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jeroen Malen to a room that had heard them before.
Emre Ünüvar is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Emre Ünüvar wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Emre Ünüvar found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Groningen went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Emre Ünüvar, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Excelsior close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gyan de Regt 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.
Emre Ünüvar 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.
He is 23 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jeroen Malen on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.22, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout24 Aug 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 1‑3 Jeroen Malen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Excelsior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stijn van Gassel and Excelsior agree another 4 years.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Aymen Sliti 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Stijn van Gassel’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutIrakli Yegoian asks for a word with the manager