“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Skye Vink wants continental football; whether Cambuur can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nordine Kandil 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Odera Samuel Onuchukwu Adindu 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wesley Aké on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutSkye Vink has become a man the manager trusts
“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 The request is on a desk at Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cambuur can tell you which week it ends in.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Bilal Fofana will call it something else in private.
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 Ayoub Oufkir is on it.
“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.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Cambuur is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSkye Vink asks for a word with the manager
“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 Cambuur, 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.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
200 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.
Something was said to Jens Magnusson and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
8 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.
0‑3 to Feyenoord, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Skye Vink decided nobody was going anywhere. Groningen had no time left to answer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 Cambuur know it.
Santiago Ramírez 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.
Something was said to Mathieu Maertens and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Thijs Jansen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Thijs Jansen 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
0‑1 against Groningen. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Nordine Kandil.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiaan Hagedoorn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Skye Vink wants continental football; whether Cambuur can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cambuur can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
“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 Cambuur, 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.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mathieu Maertens 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 shirt still fits. Léon Bergsma is back at Cambuur, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cambuur can tell you which week it ends in.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $127.7K of what Cambuur paid for Justin Ogenia is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Willem II is saying, and nobody at Cambuur is enjoying the guessing.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Feb 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Emmen have accepted the money. What Cambuur do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
“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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
12 new faces, and Cambuur 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cambuur will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Mitchel Bakker is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Santiago Ramírez has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiaan Hagedoorn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cambuur asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Furkan Ulutaş 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Ismaël Baouf 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.
10 combined actions and 7.01. 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nordine Kandil is living that version at Cambuur, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with Twente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Volendam pay $560.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Paolo Guajardo has just signed for Cambuur, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cambuur heard it as anything else.
The deal with PSV 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.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Léon Bergsma has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cambuur have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The name of Diyae Jermoumi has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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 at Cambuur 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jesper Tielemans has his answer from Cambuur; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
NEC next, and one man in the Cambuur dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Skye Vink 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Skye Vink. 1‑0 against Sparta Rotterdam, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Half the programme played, position 11, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
0‑1 against Ararat, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ozan Kökçü will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cambuur has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
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.
“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 dugout10 Dec 2029
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Wesley Aké to a room that had heard them before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cambuur will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Cambuur 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.
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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
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.
It involved Mathieu Maertens, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Cambuur pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
A 2‑0 win over Fortuna Sittard, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. David Tufekçiç has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Len de Bont did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiaan Hagedoorn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Ozan Kökçü 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 22 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jamal Amofa
BoardroomNobody left the Cambuur dressing room in a hurry
BoardroomWages eat 103% of everything Cambuur earn
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Ayoub Oufkir is on it.
0‑2 against Inter Turku. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Furkan Ulutaş 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Aké after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cambuur, another week without a signature from Lars Kramer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiaan Hagedoorn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Furkan Ulutaş was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Marked 6.93 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Ayoub Oufkir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cambuur can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ayoub Oufkir 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.
“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 dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Wesley Aké, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Ismaël Baouf 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad15 Oct 2029
5 new faces, and Cambuur 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.
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 Mathieu Maertens is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Heracles in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Xavier Odhiambo has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathieu Maertens commits to Cambuur for another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Ozan Kökçü 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ozan Kökçü has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Ozan Kökçü 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ozan Kökçü will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ayoub Oufkir 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.
200 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 20 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.24 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lars Kramer, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
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 Wesley Aké to a room that had heard them before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thijs Jansen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cambuur needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Furkan Ulutaş has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PSV is saying, and nobody at Cambuur is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur ran out of time with Willem II. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $407.6K of what Cambuur paid for Evan Rottier is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Cambuur and Willem II have settled on $690.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 22 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. NAC Breda moved on, Jesper Tielemans reports back to Cambuur, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
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.
16 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.
The offer from Fortuna Sittard for Damy Bernardina 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.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiaan Hagedoorn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cambuur have gone to VVV-Venlo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cambuur asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ayoub Oufkir 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
15 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.
Cambuur offered $7.9M; Feyenoord said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PSV keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Cambuur have gone to AZ with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
In brief
Boardroom7 academy players handed senior numbers at Cambuur
SquadDevid Bouah falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Damy Bernardina again, and this time the name on the line is NEC. Cambuur are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Damy Bernardina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with Feyenoord, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
AZ wanted more than $440.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Devid Bouah 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.
“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; Cambuur are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Cambuur 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Emmen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$7.9M on the table at Feyenoord. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Cambuur offered $3.8M; Ajax said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Devid Bouah signs something — a contract at Cambuur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him 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 Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Cambuur have gone to Ajax with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
49 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Devid Bouah 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.
Ozan Kökçü 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cambuur, another week without a signature from Lars Kramer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
$7.9M on the table at Feyenoord. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Cambuur offered $71.0K; Go Ahead Eagles said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastiaan Hagedoorn and Cambuur agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cambuur, another week without a signature from Skye Vink.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with Feyenoord, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Cambuur have gone to Go Ahead Eagles with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Devid Bouah 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.
Cambuur offered $7.9M; Feyenoord said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
$2.1M on the table at Feyenoord. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Skye Vink again, and this time the name on the line is Club Brugge. Cambuur are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur 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 Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$7.9M on the table at Feyenoord. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Cambuur had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at De Graafschap, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Rik Mulders has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Mathieu Maertens 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cedric Hatenboer commits to Cambuur for another 4 years.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Sofyan Amrabat is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ozan Kökçü trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Evan Rottier has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Cambuur have had the benefit of 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
23 clean sheets and the golden glove for Matěj Kovář
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 23 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dies Janse 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 Ozan Kökçü trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ismaël Baouf signs something — a contract at Cambuur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Cambuur 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Rik Mulders’s negotiating for him
The dugoutThe manager makes Evan Rottier a promise
BoardroomThe Cambuur production line keeps running
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 72 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesper Tielemans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dies Janse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Cambuur game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Rotterdam runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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: Oskar Sivertsen. 1‑0 against Jong AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Dies Janse 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 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.
“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.
Position 3, 67 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.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Dies Janse 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jamal Amofa and Cambuur agree another 3 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Dies Janse 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.
Oskar Sivertsen 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 Dies Janse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Cambuur prefer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cambuur, another week without a signature from Lars Kramer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ozan Kökçü trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
11 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.
Dies Janse 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oskar Sivertsen. 2‑0 against MVV Maastricht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Devid Bouah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsOskar Sivertsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesper Tielemans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathieu Maertens 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: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Dies Janse 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dies Janse 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 8.02 — 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.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Thijs Jansen will call it something else in private.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Cambuur did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Dies Janse 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.
9 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.
“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 dugout26 Feb 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Rik Mulders
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dies Janse 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Wesley Aké could afford to be generous.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Iwan Henstra decided nobody was going anywhere. Emmen had no time left to answer.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.14, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Oskar Sivertsen 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Iwan Henstra 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.
8 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.
Player ratingsDevid Bouah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Thijs Jansen
132Edition
The Cambuur Post
5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondentTriumph
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
$740.0K settles it between the clubs for Rick Jonkers
De Graafschap have accepted the money. What Cambuur do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Cambuur had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at De Graafschap, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Cambuur 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Cambuur will try again when the window opens; NAC Breda may not be selling by then.
In brief
SquadWords at Cambuur training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Cambuur and NAC Breda have settled on $930.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: VVV-Venlo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Cambuur have gone to De Graafschap with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Boyd Lucassen
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur asked and Groningen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Cambuur had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at De Graafschap, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mathieu Maertens. 1‑0 against Telstar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesper Tielemans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Skye Vink was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.23. 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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Oskar Sivertsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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: Oskar Sivertsen. 1‑0 against Jong AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Oskar Sivertsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Oskar Sivertsen 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cambuur.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Thijs Jansen
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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Wesley Aké, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cambuur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThijs Jansen dropped after a run of poor form
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesper Tielemans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joey Sleegers and Cambuur agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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 dugout4 Dec 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathieu Maertens's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Minute 85, against Volendam, 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.
“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 Cambuur know it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Cambuur game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Rotterdam runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cambuur, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Volendam next, and one man in the Cambuur dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cambuur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
RKC Waalwijk go through and Cambuur go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oskar Sivertsen. 2‑1 against MVV Maastricht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ismaël Baouf 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Skye Vink 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Skye Vink. 1‑0 against RKC Waalwijk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Cambuur had all but put away. VVV-Venlo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Something was said to Oskar Sivertsen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cambuur can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Aké after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Thijs Jansen
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dies Janse trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cambuur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ismaël Baouf 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.
Almere City next, and one man in the Cambuur dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Evan Rottier has written the date down.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cambuur lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Boy Kemper has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cambuur.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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 Wesley Aké left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cambuur lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Oskar Sivertsen scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Emmen, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
“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; Cambuur are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Thijs Jansen
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Oskar Sivertsen 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lars Kramer has, at Cambuur, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dies Janse 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.
Cambuur offered $240.0K; Den Bosch said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $172.1K of what Cambuur paid for Mannou Berger is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Cambuur 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.
Cambuur have gone to Den Bosch with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Cambuur asked and Sparta Rotterdam said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cambuur have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer went to NAC Breda 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.
Cambuur offered $690.0K; Feyenoord said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done: Justin Ogenia joins from Heracles in a deal worth $200.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Ismaël Baouf 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.
$1.5M was the most the club would pay and NAC Breda were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with Heracles, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Cambuur asked and ADO Den Haag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ismaël Baouf 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 Cambuur can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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 offer from Sheffield Wednesday for Damy Bernardina 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.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cambuur have gone to NAC Breda with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Dies Janse 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Cambuur
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nathan Depay 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. Virgil Weghorst 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.
The offer from Heerenveen for Devid Bouah 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.
Cambuur and Ajax have settled on $760.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The fee is $890.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almere City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hénin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dies Janse 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur asked and Servette said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Jesper Tielemans has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mark Diemers has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Den Bosch were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah 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 Cambuur know it.
Cambuur asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rik Mulders trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The offer from Mainz 05 for Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur have gone to Almere City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $966.9K — a club that wants Joey Jacobs enough to be asked twice.
$270.0K on the table at Den Bosch. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Skye Vink and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Devid Bouah 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. Dynamo Dresden have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cambuur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cambuur have gone to Zwolle with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Mathieu Maertens 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 Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cambuur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hénin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dies Janse 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.
Roshon van Eijma has left for Volendam in a $260.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Devid Bouah 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.
Cambuur asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8 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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Vincent Vermeij is in the works
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Joran Telleman
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cambuur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur 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 Cambuur can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with PSV, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Sparta Rotterdam have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mart Remans. The answer from Cambuur has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Devid Bouah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cambuur asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Said Bakari
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cambuur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cambuur they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cambuur have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The name of Yanis Musuayi has come up in conversations Cambuur were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Cambuur 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cambuur people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Cambuur have gone to VVV-Venlo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The chase for Sebastiaan Hagedoorn ended with $600.0K changing hands and Almere City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Roshon van Eijma has agreed terms with Heerenveen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Mathieu Maertens 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cambuur can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cambuur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Fortuna Sittard had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The phone has started ringing about Ismaël Baouf again, and this time the name on the line is Borussia Mönchengladbach. Cambuur are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hénin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cambuur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $147.9K — a club that wants Juul Timmermans enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AZ keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mathieu Maertens 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 offer went to Roda 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.
In brief
SquadDevid Bouah falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Cambuur, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cambuur is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Cambuur go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cambuur have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 22 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.
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Devid Bouah 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.
32 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thijs Jansen signs something — a contract at Cambuur or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Yanis Hénin is on it.