It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Jesse Bal on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of ADO Den Haag and Utrecht.
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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the ADO Den Haag dressing room in a hurry
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ADO Den Haag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sergiño Dest 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ADO Den Haag can tell you which week it ends in.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kilian Nikiéma commits to ADO Den Haag for another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juho Kilo 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.
Sergiño Dest 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 Oct 2026
Matěj Šín 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. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout5 Oct 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 0‑2 Denzel Clasie left the room before anybody could ask which.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Othniël Raterink has come out of that comparison in the side, and ADO Den Haag have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zwolle in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Matěj Šín 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kilian Nikiéma is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesse Bal 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.
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and ADO Den Haag 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Denzel Clasie chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Matěj Šín 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 Luka Reischl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Nobody at ADO Den Haag is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
A mark of 7.72 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.
Sergiño Dest 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.
At 20 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Šín 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jalen Hawkins. 3‑1 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Othniël Raterink has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
ADO Den Haag close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 5 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.
ADO Den Haag had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Wigan Athletic, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Sergiño Dest 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. ADO Den Haag will try very hard not to make too much of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pascal Mulder
Matěj Šín 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.
ADO Den Haag asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Illaijh de Ruijter. 2‑1 against Heracles, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
10 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Denzel Clasie could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Diogo Tomás
The dugoutDonát Bárány asks for a word with the manager
The offer went to Twente this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at ADO Den Haag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Šín 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.
At 22 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: Matěj Šín. 2‑0 against Vitesse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Matěj Šín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Everything agreed with Willem II, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ADO Den Haag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ADO Den Haag asked and Borussia Dortmund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonas Jensen-Abbew, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Evan Rottier 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.
The dugout17 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 1‑2 Denzel Clasie left the room before anybody could ask which.
$10.1M settles it between the clubs for Sergiño Dest
PSV have accepted the money. What ADO Den Haag do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
ADO Den Haag had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Matěj Šín 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Teun Babel has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Owen Dost has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Denzel Wijnaldum has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Pascal Mulder 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sekou Sylla
Jan Žambůrek 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
Matěj Šín 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and ADO Den Haag 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. ADO Den Haag would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.