The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Feyenoord keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everything was agreed with KV Kortrijk and then the doctor spoke. Emmen have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Emmen close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal that would have taken Agon Sadiku to Heerenveen has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Emmen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The deal with FC Midtjylland 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Iqbal 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Nordin Bukala, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 The request is on a desk at Emmen, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Emmen have done the hard part with Bodo/Glimt, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Zidane Iqbal 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.
Tom Reyners 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Remco Balk 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 Timothy Fosu-Mensah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Midtjylland have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nordin Bukala did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Emmen, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Joris van Overeem, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Emmen had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emmen 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.” Emmen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Roshon van Eijma 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 had been thinking. Joshua Mukeh 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Owen Van Dijk to a room that had heard them before.
Roda next, and one man in the Emmen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Elies Mahmoud 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 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Iqbal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 7.28 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Emmen can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Remco Balk 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 had been thinking. Zidane Iqbal 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodney Kongolo and Emmen agree another 3 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Owen Van Dijk left the room before anybody could ask which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Finn Stokkers signs something — a contract at Emmen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Agon Sadiku
The dugoutNelson Amadin knocks on the manager’s door
Player ratingsThe whistle followed Zidane Iqbal 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 Emmen 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. Zidane Iqbal 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.
A performance of 8.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Zidane Iqbal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Emmen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Roshon van Eijma 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 Zidane Iqbal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Van Dijk after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Emmen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Remco Balk takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remco Balk provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hessel de Wit did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Remco Balk 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Finn Stokkers was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Emmen and Jong Utrecht, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joshua Mukeh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jong Utrecht next, and one man in the Emmen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Finn Stokkers signs something — a contract at Emmen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Zidane Iqbal 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then MVV Maastricht scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Emmen, another week without a signature from Roshon van Eijma.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Owen Van Dijk chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Iqbal 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Remco Balk 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.
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Joshua Mukeh 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.
15 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Emmen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zidane Iqbal 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against TOP Oss in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Emmen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Zidane Iqbal 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Emmen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emmen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Remco Balk takes the afternoon — 9.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Remco Balk provided it, and the 9.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nordin Bukala, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.30
A mark of 8.30 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Remco Balk 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 Zidane Iqbal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Owen Van Dijk left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Emmen is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nilay van der Ploeg may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emmen can pretend not to have heard.
Emmen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAA Gent, 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 Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Finn Stokkers. 1‑0 against FC Eindhoven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer went to KV Mechelen 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Emmen 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.
The deal with KAA Gent 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emmen 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 Zidane Iqbal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Emmen will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Emmen, another week without a signature from Finn Stokkers.
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 Emmen prefer.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Emmen have paid $2.2M for Tom Reyners, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
1 for Tim Geypens, marked 7.31, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Remco Balk 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.
Finn Stokkers had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Helmond Sport were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Finn Stokkers takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Finn Stokkers provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Remco Balk 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.
Emmen offered $340.0K; NEC 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chicago Fire have kept their man, and Emmen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Remco Balk has just signed for Emmen, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Hessel de Wit, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer went to Lommel 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $90.0K — a club that wants David Dailoski enough to be asked twice.
Emmen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, 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 Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$83.0K on the table at VVV-Venlo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Emmen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tim Depay is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven Gravenberch 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. Rick De Roon 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Tim Stengs 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.
Emmen asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Emmen will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Emmen, another week without a signature from Finn Stokkers.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Mukeh 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.