0‑3 to Ajax, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sil Blokhuis did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Walid Ould-Chikh 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djevencio van der Kust 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.
0‑1 away to the standard of Basaksehir. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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.
The goal that put Groningen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Heracles equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pep Biel. 2‑0 against Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Nathan Berghuis could afford to be generous.
Mike te Wierik 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Walid Ould-Chikh has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Something was said to Walid Ould-Chikh and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Walid Ould-Chikh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Utrecht in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
2‑0 against Oțelul Galați, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Pep Biel was at the centre of the description.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mike te Wierik and Heracles agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sem Scheperman has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Fortuna Sittard the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Heracles will enjoy reviewing.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heracles told Nazareno Bazán Vera something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 2‑3 Nathan Berghuis left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑4 against VfB Stuttgart. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padova have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heracles, another week without a signature from Fabian de Keijzer.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
Squad12 new faces, and Heracles are still learning each other
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Stijn Bultman
The dugoutMike te Wierik dropped after a run of poor form
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris-Kévin Nadje 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.
Damon Mirani 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Heracles are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bryan Smeets has just signed for Heracles, and for once the answer mattered.
“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; Heracles are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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.
Heracles asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stijn Bultman, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Tobias Sommer is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fabian de Keijzer is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Add another name to the list: De Graafschap have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sem Scheperman. The answer from Heracles has not changed — yet.
Heracles had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Albacete, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heracles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brondby is saying, and nobody at Heracles is enjoying the guessing.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Heracles. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris-Kévin Nadje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Heracles asked and Moss said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Nazareno Bazán Vera 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
The offer from Emmen for Sem Scheperman 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sava Čestić was one of the reasons people came, and $3.8M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: BK Hacken keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Heracles people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Heracles asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mimeirhel Benita 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Heracles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Damon Mirani 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. Heracles will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Newcastle Jets for Rhys Bozinovski 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego van Oorschot and Heracles agree another 4 years.
Diego van Oorschot 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Tobias Sommer 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heracles can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
36 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Heracles are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Heracles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newcastle Jets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Heracles 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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with Beerschot, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Heracles is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Heracles offered $6.0M; Feyenoord 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.
The phone has started ringing about Rhys Bozinovski again, and this time the name on the line is Newcastle Jets. Heracles are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Koen Bucker has just signed for Heracles, and for once the answer mattered.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
$6.0M on the table at Feyenoord. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Go Ahead Eagles paid $530.0K and Heracles took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Heracles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jeff Reine-Adélaïde may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Heracles have no good 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 Rhys Bozinovski has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Heracles asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yvandro Borges Sanches and Heracles agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yvandro Borges Sanches is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Heracles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
34 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Something was said to Naci Ünüvar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Heracles that is a harder question to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 May 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
Justin Ogenia 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.33 for the rest of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Heracles can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Oliver Edvardsen 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mimeirhel Benita has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heracles told Mees de Wit something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.83 for the rest of 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sem Scheperman. 2‑0 against Volendam, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match24 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Heracles. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jeff Reine-Adélaïde.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees de Wit 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.
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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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 0‑3 Nathan Berghuis left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mees de Wit. 1‑0 against Go Ahead Eagles, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nathan Berghuis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
At 23 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.
Djevencio van der Kust 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Naci Ünüvar 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees de Wit 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.
Justin Ogenia 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heracles told Mees de Wit something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Heracles 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jeff Reine-Adélaïde is on it.
3 goals in 30 games at RKC Waalwijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Heracles updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Mike te Wierik 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Nathan Berghuis could afford to be generous.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erik Ahlstrand is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Oliver Edvardsen 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees de Wit 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Mees de Wit was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Minute 94, against Sparta Rotterdam, 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Oliver Edvardsen 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mike te Wierik commits to Heracles for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Mees de Wit 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Heracles know 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 new faces, and Heracles 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.
Something was said to Mimeirhel Benita and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Mar 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.” Nathan Berghuis chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
Damon Mirani 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erik Ahlstrand, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sem Scheperman's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Nathan Berghuis to a room that had heard them before.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Djevencio van der Kust 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mees de Wit 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.
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with RFC Liege, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.91 beside his name.
The shirt still fits. Paul Gladon is back at Heracles, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union SG have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and NAC Breda were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Heracles close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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.
Everything agreed with Anderlecht, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bodo/Glimt keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mees de Wit 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.
Mimeirhel Benita 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Heracles lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Thomas Bruns had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Mike te Wierik 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.
100 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sem Scheperman scored, was marked 7.24, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to PSV; Heracles go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PSV is saying, and nobody at Heracles is enjoying the guessing.
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.
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heracles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Fortuna Sittard for Sava Čestić 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.
Heracles 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeff Reine-Adélaïde and Heracles agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Sparta Rotterdam will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniël Hanzen has pre-agreed a move to Heracles, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Heracles is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Heracles know it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Verrips was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alen Dizdarević has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Heracles have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles 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 Michael Verrips was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sem Scheperman has his answer from Heracles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 12, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Nathan Berghuis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Twente go through and Heracles go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Marked 8.33 — 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 about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nathan Berghuis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Heracles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 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.
Nobody at Heracles 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.
Volendam next, and one man in the Heracles dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Mike te Wierik 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nathan Berghuis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Heracles dressing room was either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heracles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Sem Scheperman, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against NEC; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Heracles have no good answer.
1 for Alec Van Hoorenbeeck, marked 7.58, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
8 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Nathan Berghuis could afford to be generous.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rhys Bozinovski is on it.
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Heracles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
4 goals in 9 games at VVV-Venlo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Heracles updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Heracles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Heracles would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A side in position 12 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Sparta Rotterdam had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Heracles told Michael Verrips something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Heracles will not try tonight.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
110 minutes played. Jeff Reine-Adélaïde found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and RKC Waalwijk went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Verrips was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Naci Ünüvar 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.
8.31. 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Naci Ünüvar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mimeirhel Benita 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.
8.26. 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Sem Scheperman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nathan Berghuis on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
At 22 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Utrecht had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nathan Berghuis was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Heracles dressing room was either.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
SquadMario Engels has seen what the next man earns
11Edition
The Heracles Sentinel
12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Heracles 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Djevencio van der Kust’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Heracles needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heracles, another week without a signature from Justin Ogenia.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Ringeling is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Heracles training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Verrips 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.
Alec Van Hoorenbeeck 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.
8.18. 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nathan Berghuis, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A brace, and Naci Ünüvar takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Naci Ünüvar provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Naci Ünüvar 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Fortuna Sittard had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nathan Berghuis after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Djevencio van der Kust 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 Michael Verrips was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nathan Berghuis after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Utrecht is saying, and nobody at Heracles is enjoying the guessing.
Heracles asked and Sint-Truiden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Justin Ogenia 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.
“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 Heracles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Heracles close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Justin Ogenia has, at Heracles, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Union Berlin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zulte Waregem have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mike te Wierik 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alec Van Hoorenbeeck has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
5 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heracles, another week without a signature from Justin Ogenia.
The deal with Union Berlin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Heracles go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nathan Berghuis to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Heracles can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Heracles have done the hard part with Feyenoord, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 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.
He is going to Volendam, the club has $4.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Alec Van Hoorenbeeck 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.
Heracles asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mimeirhel Benita, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Nathan Berghuis to a room that had heard them before.
The offer from NEC for Luka Kulenović 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Djevencio van der Kust and Heracles agree another 3 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.
Heracles asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arnaut 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Frenkie Lang 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.
Alec Van Hoorenbeeck 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.
Heracles asked and Francs Borains said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Yvandro Borges Sanches has come up in conversations Heracles were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Heracles has been clear about where Sava Čestić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Still no offer on the table, and Mario Engels’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.