From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Feyenoord wanted more than $7.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Tygo Land, 20, 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 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.8M — a club that wants Maarten Paes enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorg Schreuders 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Younes Taha. 3‑1 against Heerenveen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 21 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Ajax come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Groningen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Groningen 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Groningen
Marvin Peersman 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oskar Zawada and Groningen agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Groningen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorg Schreuders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Almere City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fofin Turay. The answer from Groningen has not changed — yet.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Guus Lang 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Owen Xavi Simons is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marvin Peersman and Groningen agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marvin Peersman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorg Schreuders 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Groningen asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Etienne Vaessen’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Groningen 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Romeo Vermant is in the works
Groningen have made the call to Club Brugge. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Oskar Zawada asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Groningen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.