A season average of 7.22 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. MVV Maastricht know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The deal with Emmen 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.
“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 MVV Maastricht know it.
Ilano Silva Timas 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 Lars Schenk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutHidde Jurjus knocks on the manager's door
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$100.0K was the most the club would pay and ADO Den Haag were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilano Silva Timas 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. Utrecht have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
MVV Maastricht have made the call to Chicago Fire. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Mamadou Barry is on it.
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.
MVV Maastricht have gone to Heerenveen 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.
The offer went to ADO Den Haag 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.
Mark Verkuijl 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 Ilano Silva Timas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Groningen 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.
$19.0K was the most the club would pay and Den Bosch were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Schenk 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and MVV Maastricht will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MVV Maastricht can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.22 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. MVV Maastricht know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MVV Maastricht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Thomas Kok 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Marko Kleinen 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.
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 Mamadou Barry is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MVV Maastricht. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Schenk 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 easiest signature of my career.” Hugo Vargas Rios and MVV Maastricht agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Position 16 on 38 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
A 2‑1 win over Helmond Sport, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Schenk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Kenneth Dost could afford to be generous.
Squad17 May 2027
Elyèss Dao, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where MVV Maastricht would like this to lead.
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. MVV Maastricht know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Ilano Silva Timas 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Elyèss Dao 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.
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.
“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 MVV Maastricht know it.
Ilano Silva Timas 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MVV Maastricht can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑1 to Roda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Schenk 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kenneth Dost after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 MVV Maastricht 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.” Ayman Kassimi and MVV Maastricht agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilias Breugelmans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Kenneth Dost to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Lenn-Minh Tran'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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MVV Maastricht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht 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.” Kenneth Dost after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Marko Kleinen 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.
VVV-Venlo next, and one man in the MVV Maastricht dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Jong AZ will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. MVV Maastricht were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. MVV Maastricht know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
7 goals in one match, Elyèss Dao on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of MVV Maastricht and Jong AZ.
Ilano Silva Timas 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 19 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.
Minute 91, against Cambuur, 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.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at MVV Maastricht pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilias Breugelmans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Verkuijl is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mark Verkuijl 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.
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Kleinen 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bryan Smeets’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MVV Maastricht needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Marino signs something — a contract at MVV Maastricht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Christopher Kikuni Kikuni is on 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.
“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 MVV Maastricht will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutWout Coomans knocks on the manager's door
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MVV Maastricht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mark Verkuijl 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 21 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 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 dugout22 Mar 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Kenneth Dost to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joep Mullenders is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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; MVV Maastricht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Mark Verkuijl 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.
6 goals in one match, Melle Witteveen on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of MVV Maastricht and ADO Den Haag.
“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; MVV Maastricht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Melle Witteveen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Mark Verkuijl 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 Ilias Breugelmans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Braken 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MVV Maastricht told Nabil el Basri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
MVV Maastricht asked and Heracles 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Elyèss Dao did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” MVV Maastricht may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at MVV Maastricht until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MVV Maastricht can pretend not to have heard.
Mark Verkuijl 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.
MVV Maastricht 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
SquadWords at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
25Edition
The MVV Maastricht Post
18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.43
A mark of 8.43 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht 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. ADO Den Haag have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 20 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.
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilias Breugelmans 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.
Everything agreed with Sparta Rotterdam, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
MVV Maastricht asked and Sparta Rotterdam 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 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and MVV Maastricht have had the benefit of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Verkuijl is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mark Verkuijl 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MVV Maastricht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
MVV Maastricht asked and Twente 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luca Marino did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jong PSV were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Mark Verkuijl 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. Joep Mullenders is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about MVV Maastricht and Jong PSV in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Melle Witteveen 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.
7 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
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 a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. VVV-Venlo kept coming because nothing stopped them, and MVV Maastricht will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Marked 6.72 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 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 2‑4 Kenneth Dost left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutDevin Remie knocks on the manager's door
SquadKai Jansen falls out with a teammate over standards
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luca Marino did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Mark Verkuijl 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Delano Asante and MVV Maastricht agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilias Breugelmans 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cambuur scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Elyèss Dao did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Dordrecht ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when MVV Maastricht equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cambuur in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilias Breugelmans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dordrecht in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Christopher Kikuni Kikuni is on 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.
In brief
The dugoutDelano Asante asks for a word with the manager
Mark Verkuijl 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MVV Maastricht will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is 18, and nobody at MVV Maastricht signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
A 1‑1 draw with Emmen leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kenneth Dost was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the MVV Maastricht dressing room was either.
4‑0, and Elyèss Dao took the headlines on an afternoon when everything MVV Maastricht tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Elyèss Dao, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Mark Verkuijl 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MVV Maastricht, another week without a signature from Thomas Kok.
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kenneth Dost kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht 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.
Something was said to Mark Verkuijl and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
15 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MVV Maastricht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 20 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. MVV Maastricht will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joep Mullenders is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nabil el Basri has his answer from MVV Maastricht; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RKC Waalwijk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 MVV Maastricht will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nabil el Basri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mark Verkuijl 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 22 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.
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.
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MVV Maastricht.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at MVV Maastricht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilias Breugelmans 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kenneth Dost after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sven Braken is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elyèss Dao has just signed for MVV Maastricht, and for once the answer mattered.
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 19 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 MVV Maastricht 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: Ilano Silva Timas. 2‑1 against Vitesse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 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.
8.24. 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MVV Maastricht are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
13 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.
“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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kenneth Dost after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sep van der Heijden’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MVV Maastricht needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Jong Ajax will want this one forgotten quickly: 10‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. MVV Maastricht were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilano Silva Timas provided it, and the 9.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Luca Marino takes the afternoon — 7.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Marino provided it, and the 7.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MVV Maastricht can pretend not to have heard.
“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 MVV Maastricht, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at MVV Maastricht until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Mark Verkuijl 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Niels Martens has just signed for MVV Maastricht, and for once the answer mattered.
MVV Maastricht ran out of time with ADO Den Haag. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Niels Martens and MVV Maastricht agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The deal with Ajax 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.
Ilano Silva Timas 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arouna Kabba is living that version at MVV Maastricht, and it tends to show in the first month.
MVV Maastricht asked and Zwolle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fortuna Sittard have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arouna Kabba and MVV Maastricht agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kenneth Dost was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the MVV Maastricht dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Devin Remie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 MVV Maastricht, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MVV Maastricht have done the hard part with Heerenveen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Thomas Kok 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 Ilano Silva Timas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MVV Maastricht are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
NEC arrived with $520.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Devin Remie is living that version at MVV Maastricht, and it tends to show in the first month.
Stan Van Dessel has gone, the accounts have $520.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.40 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MVV Maastricht have done the hard part with Feyenoord, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and MVV Maastricht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NEC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at MVV Maastricht is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AZ keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ilano Silva Timas 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at MVV Maastricht
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Owen Van Dijk 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. Tim Blind 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. Memphis Van de Beek 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 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.
In brief
SquadStan Van Dessel falls out with a teammate over standards
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilano Silva Timas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
MVV Maastricht asked and Rosenborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MVV Maastricht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Ilano Silva Timas’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MVV Maastricht has been clear about where Stan Van Dessel stands, which is more than many ever get.