19 Nov 2026
Thursday
Process
16 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Twente through in the cup

A 2‑1 win over Willem II, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Match

Sondre Ørjasæter wins it after the whistle should have gone

94 minutes played. Sondre Ørjasæter found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Willem II went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Player ratings

Sondre Ørjasæter scores twice — 8.36

Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A falling-out at Twente

Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Daan Rots’s goal not enough for Twente

Daan Rots scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to AZ, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The terraces

One of their own: Sondre Ørjasæter

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 dugout

Koen Oosterhof gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A row about effort at Twente

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stav Lemkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Daan Rots in the eights

A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

Back issues
15 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson leads the rout of Cambuur

3‑0, and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Twente tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Wout Weghorst, 34, rolls back the years — 8.04

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Wout Weghorst wants more than Twente are offering

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Twente

Lars Unnerstall 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.

Squad

Words at Twente training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiz Zerrouki 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 terraces

The crowd has taken to Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson

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.

Player ratings

Daan Rots was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.45. 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.

The dugout

Quincy De Roon: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.

Loan watch

Naci Ünüvar keeps scoring at Heracles

13 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.

In brief

14 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Daan Rots

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Bart van Rooij wants more than Twente are offering

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Twente

Ramiz Zerrouki 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Twente

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Twente can tell you which week it ends in.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lars Unnerstall

“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.

Match

Twente come up short against Excelsior

Excelsior left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Twente dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

Loan watch

Yannick Gerritsen counts the days

“I watch every Twente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cambridge United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

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 Quincy De Roon left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

13 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Sondre Ørjasæter

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Ramiz Zerrouki in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Whatever happens, Twente do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

A row about effort at Twente

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stav Lemkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Twente are still strangers to each other

11 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 dugout

Quincy De Roon on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Quincy De Roon after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

Match

Twente draw a blank against ADO Den Haag

The crowd waited for a goal that never came. ADO Den Haag defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.

Market

Ramiz Zerrouki linked with a move away

The name of Ramiz Zerrouki keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Twente say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

No place in the plan for Robin Pröpper

The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

In brief

12 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Daan Rots

Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Pim Bruggink keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Twente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Ramiz Zerrouki 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Twente

Keisuke Osako 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.

Squad

Michal Rosiak stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Michal Rosiak and Twente agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Quincy De Roon on the draw

“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.

Match

Point won or two lost for Twente?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Zwolle? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Loan watch

Naci Ünüvar keeps scoring at Heracles

10 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.

The dugout

The plan did not have a place for Queensy Menig

Nobody at Twente 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.

In brief

11 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Bart van Rooij has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Twente can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ricky van Wolfswinkel

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words exchanged at Twente

Lars Unnerstall 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.

Match

Twente find a way past NEC

NEC made Twente work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Bart van Rooij at his very best

Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Twente.

The dugout

A satisfied Quincy De Roon

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Quincy De Roon could afford to be generous.

Squad

Words at Twente training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Nagel 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.

Squad

The division's best last weekend was a Twente man

It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Wout Weghorst was the best thing in any of them.

Market

The Bart van Rooij story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bart van Rooij signs something — a contract at Twente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

10 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Daan Rots was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 40. 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.

Match

No mercy from Twente

Roda will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Twente were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Squad

3 goals for Wout Weghorst

The match ball belongs to Wout Weghorst, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Wout Weghorst yet — 9.38

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Tempers go at Twente

Lars Unnerstall 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.

Loan watch

Yannick Gerritsen counts the days

“I watch every Twente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cambridge United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The terraces

Twente supporters have found a favourite in Sondre Ørjasæter

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sondre Ørjasæter 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.

Squad

Stav Lemkin 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 ratings

Bart van Rooij was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.35. 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

9 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Sondre Ørjasæter beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

No end in sight to Twente's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Twente has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Lars Unnerstall in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Twente cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Squad

Words at Twente training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiz Zerrouki 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.

Squad

11 new faces, and Twente are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout

Ricky van Wolfswinkel dropped after a run of poor form

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.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Quincy De Roon was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Twente dressing room was either.

Match

Twente and Heracles cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Heracles came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

In brief

8 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at Twente

Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Twente

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.

Player ratings

Wout Weghorst runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Queensy Menig gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Quincy De Roon was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Twente dressing room was either.

Squad

A row about effort at Twente

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Nagel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ramiz Zerrouki was immovable

13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Match

No goals between Twente and Willem II

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Willem II will be the happier side with the point.

The dugout

Thomas van den Belt 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.

In brief

7 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Illaijh de Ruijter stays at ADO Den Haag as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Twente will try again when the window opens; ADO Den Haag may not be selling by then.

Transfer targets

PSV tell Twente: Ruben van Bommel is not for sale

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.

Match

Ajax take the points off Twente

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

A row about effort at Twente

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stav Lemkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Daan Rots beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

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 Quincy De Roon left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Michal Rosiak gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Market

Bakr El Helali brings the grey hairs Twente lacked

At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.

Looking ahead

A reunion for Wout Weghorst

He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Willem II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.

In brief

6 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Illaijh de Ruijter

Twente and ADO Den Haag have settled on $3.0M. 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.

Market

Twente pay Feyenoord $6.6M for a proper upgrade

Feyenoord did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.6M for Thomas Beelen, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jason Vanaken

Twente asked and KV Oostende said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 8 in, 1 out at Twente

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Player ratings

Daan Rots beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Twente

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiz Zerrouki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A falling-out at Twente

Keisuke Osako and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

No place for Thomas Beelen in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Twente are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

Player ratings

Nobody on the pitch touched Bart van Rooij

7.42, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Twente had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

In brief

5 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Ricky van Wolfswinkel leads the rout of Groningen

3‑0, and Ricky van Wolfswinkel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Twente tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Squad

Ramiz Zerrouki in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

One of their own: Sondre Ørjasæter

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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Daan Rots at his very best

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 Twente.

Player ratings

One of those days for Sondre Ørjasæter

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Leart Bekolli out for 14 days

The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Leart Bekolli, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Twente

9 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.

Squad

Benjamin Nagel 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 dugout

Quincy De Roon has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Quincy De Roon on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

4 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Sondre Ørjasæter was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 48. 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.

Transfer targets

Twente rebuffed over Tsuyoshi Watanabe

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Twente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Twente say no — this time

The offer from De Graafschap for Marko Pjaca 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Twente

Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

A bad afternoon for Twente against Utrecht

0‑1 to Utrecht, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pim Bruggink

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pim Bruggink, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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 Quincy De Roon left the room before anybody could ask which.

Squad

Pim Bruggink has had enough of the bench

“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Twente will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.

The dugout

The form table has caught Benjamin Nagel

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.

In brief

3 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Sondre Ørjasæter beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Twente say no — this time

The offer from Cambuur for Bart van Rooij 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.

Market

Keisuke Osako arrives at Twente as the heir apparent

Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Keisuke Osako is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.

Squad

Menno Koch gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Menno Koch has just signed for Twente, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words exchanged at Twente

Lars Unnerstall 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.

Squad

Ramiz Zerrouki 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 terraces

Twente supporters have found a favourite in Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson 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.

Match

Twente find a way past Feyenoord

Feyenoord made Twente work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson was the difference for Twente

Marked 7.83. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

In brief

2 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Ajax come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Twente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Eyes on Bart van Rooij again

The phone has started ringing about Bart van Rooij again, and this time the name on the line is Cambuur. Twente are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Wout Weghorst wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Twente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

Ruben van Bommel is a medical away from Twente

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.

Squad

Bart van Rooij signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bart van Rooij commits to Twente for another 5 years.

Squad

Lars Unnerstall in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Twente rebuffed over Simon Fellaini

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KV Oostende have kept their man, and Twente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Twente promote Justin Hateboer from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Justin Hateboer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

The dugout

Bart van Rooij knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Twente, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

1 Edition

The Twente Sentinel

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Twente bid $7.1M for Keisuke Osako

The offer went to Sanfrecce Hiroshima 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.

Market

Bart van Rooij wants more than Twente are offering

“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.

Squad

Lars Unnerstall stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Lars Unnerstall and Twente agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Twente

Lars Unnerstall 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Tristan Degreef

Twente asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

The clock runs on Lars Unnerstall's contract

24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

Market

Talks stall between Twente and Ricky van Wolfswinkel

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Transfer targets

Twente try to borrow Ruben van Bommel

PSV 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.

Squad

5 new faces, and Twente 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.

In brief