From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Twente have gone to Benfica with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Twente have done the hard part with Paris FC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The fee is $770.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Utrecht drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Twente had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PSV, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Twente asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
In brief
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Player ratings
Sondre Ørjasæter runs at them all day
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Twente
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Krasnodar wanted more than $6.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bart van Rooij commits to Twente for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Twente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Twente
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Krasnodar 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Myron Boadu would have made for nothing
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Ramiz Zerrouki has come up in conversations Twente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.