“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Twente 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 Twente heard it as anything else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
NEC held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Twente answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Naci Ünüvar 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Twente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 Brobbey chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sondre Ørjasæter signs something — a contract at Twente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Heracles? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Myron Boadu could not do
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“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 Twente know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Brobbey after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Giraldo provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Louis Bostyn has just signed for Twente, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Twente agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filip Thorvaldsen is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Twente heard it as anything else.
3 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gijs Besselink is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Max Bruns has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 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 Twente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Maxim Deman is living that version at Twente, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Stav Lemkin has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Maxim Deman has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Giraldo provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Denso Kasius has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Owen Brobbey could afford to be generous.
$33.5M on the table at Torino. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Twente can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jordy Dost 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bart van Rooij has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Feyenoord in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Hicham El Majhed has written the date down.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Pjaca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Twente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Robin Pröpper is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Twente know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4 on 69 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 Robin Pröpper has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Roda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Twente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Twente know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Twente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mannou Berger trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Twente have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas van den Belt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Twente know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutMannou Berger knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Wout Weghorst
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Bart van Rooij has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Twente heard it as anything else.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Taylor Booth’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Twente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Peterborough United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Twente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Heerenveen paid $2.1M and Twente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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.
At 17 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Myron Boadu 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Twente people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Wigan Athletic had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 21 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Twente can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Twente can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Deacon van der Klaauw is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 offer from PSV for Wout Weghorst 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.
Twente and AZ have settled on $2.7M. 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.
“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 Twente, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Koen Oosterhof is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Delano Gelici 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
“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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Daan Rots
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.
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 Daouda Weidmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Wout Weghorst
SquadRamiz Zerrouki is training like a man with a point to make
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Twente had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Wout Weghorst 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 easiest signature of my career.” Deacon van der Klaauw and Twente agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 May 2027
Delano Gelici 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sondre Ørjasæter signs something — a contract at Twente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
69 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Twente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Max Bruns has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
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.
“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 Twente know it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Twente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
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.
Something was said to Denso Kasius and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Twente know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Twente that is a harder question to answer.
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 Robin Pröpper has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joël Drommel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Twente agree another 5 years.
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 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.
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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 69 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
10 goals in 34 games at Heracles — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Twente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
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.
Wout Weghorst 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 8.18 — 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.
“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.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Owen Brobbey after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myron Boadu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Robin Pröpper
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Naci Ünüvar’s exile
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Owen Brobbey on the draw
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Sondre Ørjasæter in the middle of it, and Cambuur unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Excelsior had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Robin Pröpper
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Twente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Myron Boadu 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 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.
15 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Hicham El Majhed
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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; Twente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bart van Rooij 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Twente pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Utrecht did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.4M for Shedrach Ebite, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Twente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Twente close the window on a squad of their own making
2 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.
“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.
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.
Twente offered $12.3M; Benfica 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.
AZ did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.7M for Denso Kasius, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The deal with Utrecht 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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
SquadGetting past Lars Unnerstall has become the hardest job in the division
25Edition
The Twente Sentinel
18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondentTriumph
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$6.7M settles it between the clubs for Denso Kasius
AZ have accepted the money. What Twente do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Benfica 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.
Position 3, 51 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.
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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Twente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Wout Weghorst wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Wout Weghorst found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and De Graafschap went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Twente will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Twente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Giraldo provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Rafael Giraldo in the middle of it, and Groningen unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Hicham El Majhed
The dugoutRobin Pröpper asks for a word with the manager
Position 3, 39 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.
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.
500 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.
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.
Lars Unnerstall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Tim 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Robin Strootman 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luuk Malen 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. Wesley Gakpo 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Brobbey after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
3 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.
“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 Twente know it.
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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ricky van Wolfswinkel provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Twente told Myron Boadu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Owen Brobbey on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Twente and Vitesse in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michal Rosiak 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Daan Rots at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Myron Boadu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Rafael Giraldo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Thomas van den Belt scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
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.
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.
He is 18 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they 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 Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robin Janssen 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. Memphis Simons 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amin Soultana did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Twente and Zwolle in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wout Weghorst. 4‑2 against Zwolle, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Twente can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daan Rots. 3‑1 against Roda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.66, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He is 19 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.26 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Amin Soultana 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Marked 8.50 — 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.
Minute 96, against Ajax, 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Owen Brobbey after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wout Weghorst. 2‑0 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Wout Weghorst is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Twente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Twente will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A 1‑1 draw with Groningen leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout31 Aug 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 Brobbey chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Twente will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Twente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Twente asked and CSKA Moscow 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.
8.37. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
La Equidad did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.9M for Rafael Giraldo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rafael Giraldo has, at Twente, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Twente will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Owen Brobbey was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Twente dressing room was either.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Twente have done the hard part with La Equidad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Heerenveen for Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson 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.
“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.
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 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Donny Malen 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. Patrick Weghorst 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Myron Boadu is living that version at Twente, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
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.