The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around NEC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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 Darko Nejašmić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vitesse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NEC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Youssef El Kachati 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.
NEC 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.
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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NEC, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutTjaronn Chery has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Dinamo Bucharest had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Twente for Noé Lebreton 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. NEC have done the hard part with Vitesse, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesaja Mustapha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around NEC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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 Darko Nejašmić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fee is $2.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. De Graafschap drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Add another name to the list: Twente have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noé Lebreton. The answer from NEC has not changed — yet.
$900.0K was the most the club would pay and Zwolle 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.
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 loan enquiry to Real Salt Lake: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutDarko Nejašmić has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tómas Johannessen's mistake
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at NEC can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
De Graafschap have accepted the money. What NEC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NEC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$900.0K on the table at Zwolle. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.2M — a club that wants Louka Vanderbruggen enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $500.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Willem II drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. NEC will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The offer went to Willem II 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.
NEC offered $630.0K; Utrecht 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Go Ahead Eagles paid $900.0K and NEC took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Nejašmić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from AZ for Darko Nejašmić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MVV Maastricht waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NEC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Joran Hardeman ended with $1.8M changing hands and De Graafschap out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$580.0K on the table at Utrecht. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $222.5K — a club that wants Oscar Pettersson enough to be asked twice.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NEC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with De Graafschap; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Ahmetcan Kaplan has gone, the accounts have $9.4M 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.
Add another name to the list: AZ have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Darko Nejašmić. The answer from NEC has not changed — yet.
NEC asked and RKC Waalwijk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
BoardroomOrion Nettl has agreed to leave NEC for nothing
NEC have gone to AZ 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Adrian Blake again, and this time the name on the line is Dordrecht. NEC are listening politely and promising nothing.
$1.8M on the table at ADO Den Haag. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 40 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
32 appearances and 2 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.
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
The dugoutGonzalo Crettaz has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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.
Nobody at NEC 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; NEC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Nejašmić 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 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at NEC would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. NEC would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 had been thinking. Darko Nejašmić 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.
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Delé Thomas
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Delé Thomas has come out of that comparison in the side, and NEC have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at NEC 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Delé Thomas did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at NEC has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Up for the corner, and Adam Tahaui delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Adam Tahaui scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
“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 NEC know it.
4 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.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. NEC know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Tjaronn Chery and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It needed Darko Nejašmić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Fortuna Sittard, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and NEC are still learning each other
The dugoutGonzalo Crettaz has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutAdrian Blake knocks on the manager's door
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nobody at NEC 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Adrian Blake 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.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wesley De Jong after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against PSV? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NEC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gonzalo Crettaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. the manager leaves with $565.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Tjaronn Chery is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Tjaronn Chery is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Nobody at NEC 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Nejašmić 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.
7 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bryan Linssen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NEC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 NEC that is a harder question to answer.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Darko Nejašmić decided nobody was going anywhere. Telstar had no time left to answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willum Þór Willumsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether NEC can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
2‑3 against RAAL La Louviere, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“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; NEC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 Darko Nejašmić 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrian Blake 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martín Bonilla is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Delé Thomas did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Volendam were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
2‑3 away to the standard of RAAL La Louviere. 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.96, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lun Bončina has, at NEC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Nejašmić 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. Sheffield United have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The offer from Persik for Martín Bonilla 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
NEC 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.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Darko Nejašmić scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Tómas Johannessen again, and this time the name on the line is Polonia Warszawa. NEC are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Nejašmić 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.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Filorizzo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The goal that put Sparta Rotterdam ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when NEC equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“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 dugout24 Jan 2028
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 1‑2 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
Youssef El Kachati 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 Bryan Linssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid NEC $1.3M. Dennis Geiger left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
NEC 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Filorizzo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 had been thinking. Matteo Filorizzo 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at NEC has been clear about where Ahmetcan Kaplan stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NEC told Tjaronn Chery something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Gonzalo Crettaz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Position 10, 18 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 dugout27 Dec 2027
the manager: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NEC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NEC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matteo Filorizzo did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Virgil Misidjan has his answer from NEC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Willum Þór Willumsson provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. NEC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gonzalo Crettaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout6 Dec 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 1‑2 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
1‑0 against FC Midtjylland, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Willum Þór Willumsson was at the centre of the description.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Filorizzo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. NEC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Tjaronn Chery was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 2‑0 win over Telstar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Mees Hilgers was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NEC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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 Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tom van de Looi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Telstar next, and one man in the NEC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NEC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 away to the standard of Rosenborg. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Tom van de Looi.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Tjaronn Chery
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NEC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Willem II go through and NEC go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
NEC are taken apart by Willem II — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1‑3 against Rosenborg, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
1 for Darko Nejašmić, marked 7.83, 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.
Tjaronn Chery 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 Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. NEC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NEC told Delé Thomas something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NEC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Massien Ghaddari 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. NEC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑2 away to the standard of Dynamo Kyiv. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Crettaz signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2‑1 against FC Midtjylland, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
NEC asked and Brondby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Delé Thomas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at NEC pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
7 goals in one match, Willum Þór Willumsson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of NEC and Sparta Rotterdam.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willum Þór Willumsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tom van de Looi has, at NEC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at NEC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willum Þór Willumsson 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Something was said to Mees Hilgers and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zurich keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
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.
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.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between NEC and Utrecht, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
NEC 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Calvin Aké 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
NEC asked and Lincoln City 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 Massien Ghaddari has come up in conversations NEC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willum Þór Willumsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Ibrahim Cissoko.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
NEC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Charleroi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Philippe Sandler is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Bryan Linssen 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Isak Hansen-Aarøen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ibrahim Cissoko is a NEC player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Gonzalo Crettaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 NEC know it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NEC, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for James Bogere is in the works
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
NEC have gone to Zwolle 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Illaijh de Ruijter has, at NEC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Illaijh de Ruijter is 20, and NEC have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
“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; NEC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Tómas Johannessen is 20, and NEC have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Linssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
NEC have gone to AZ 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Everything agreed with Groningen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Tjaronn Chery 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 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The chase for Kayne van Oevelen ended with $2.4M changing hands and Volendam out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
$140.0K on the table at Groningen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
NEC offered $41.0K; Helmond Sport 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Linssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Darko Nejašmić signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have shaken hands with Volendam; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Sparta Rotterdam wanted more than $30.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Linssen 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 have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
VVV-Venlo have accepted the money. What NEC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at NEC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
$30.0K on the table at Sparta Rotterdam. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Noé Lebreton 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.
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 NEC 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.
37 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.
6 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Darko Nejašmić signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 NEC that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NEC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at NEC and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NEC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Bram Nuytinck has written the date down.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Mees Hilgers
SquadMees Hilgers is training like a man with a point to make
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Tjaronn Chery 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.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad10 May 2027
Adrian Blake 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Crettaz signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 14 games at VVV-Venlo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NEC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NEC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 34 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NEC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; NEC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NEC, and 4 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 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.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Clement Bischoff, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Clement Bischoff 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Blake was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at NEC pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Clement Bischoff did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Heracles held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. NEC answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Virgil Misidjan has his answer from NEC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NEC 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Owen Aké 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. Jasper Brobbey has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tim Strootman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at NEC training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Kers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NEC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Darko Nejašmić, marked 7.63, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and NEC now know that too.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NEC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Patrick Brobbey has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“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 NEC know it.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about NEC and Twente in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NEC can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NEC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at NEC heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and NEC know now that the thought has arrived.
1 for Darko Nejašmić, 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Freek Entius has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Philippe Sandler will call it something else in private.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at NEC has been clear about where Bram Nuytinck stands, which is more than many ever get.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Patrick Brobbey could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 groups that do not mix, and 3 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Adrian Blake 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Philippe Sandler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Tjaronn Chery 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. Feyenoord have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joep Willems commits to NEC for another 4 years.
The dugout8 Feb 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 0‑2 Patrick Brobbey left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Philippe Sandler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NEC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Clement Bischoff did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Darko Nejašmić scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.93, and 2 involvements.
The offer from Atalanta for Nikolas Polster 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.
Gonzalo Crettaz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Something was said to Willum Þór Willumsson and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deal with Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3 groups that do not mix, and 2 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NEC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Dennis Geiger has gone, the accounts have $7.3M 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.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. NEC will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
NEC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lazio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Noë Misumi has agreed terms with Den Bosch for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“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 NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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 7.84 for the rest of it.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Add another name to the list: Zwolle have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Delé Thomas. The answer from NEC has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NEC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dennis Geiger. 2‑1 against Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Dennis Geiger delivers — 7.82
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dennis Geiger scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Position 14, 16 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noé Lebreton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clement Bischoff, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 21 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.
“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 NEC know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noé Lebreton 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Patrick Brobbey chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
0‑3 to NAC Breda, 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.
Tjaronn Chery 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Patrick Brobbey to a room that had heard them before.
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 NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Crettaz signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NEC, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
“77 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 34 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with NEC.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order NEC prefer.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.50 at 38, 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 NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Patrick Brobbey, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Mees Hilgers, marked 7.66, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven Stengs 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. Owen Simons has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Quincy Dumfries 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. Memphis Xavi Simons has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NEC 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NEC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Telstar next, and one man in the NEC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Ahmetcan Kaplan has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jamiro Monteiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 NEC have no good answer.
Next up on the road: Telstar, position 7. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Philippe Sandler 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.
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Patrick Brobbey was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the NEC dressing room was either.
Nobody at NEC 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.
Out, 0‑1 to Fortuna Sittard, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NEC, another week without a signature from Mees Hilgers.
Massien Ghaddari 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.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
Tjaronn Chery 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 Bram Nuytinck, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Patrick Brobbey kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NEC told Max Dean something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Feyenoord next, and one man in the NEC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“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 NEC know it.
Gonzalo Crettaz 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 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.
Max Dean scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Go Ahead Eagles, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and NEC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NEC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrick Brobbey after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noé Lebreton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Willum Þór Willumsson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NEC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NEC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Tjaronn Chery was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Patrick Brobbey after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Heerenveen defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AZ in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ahmetcan Kaplan has written the date down.
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.
“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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.94, and 2 involvements.
$420.0K was the most the club would pay and Feyenoord 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.
Youssef El Kachati was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Patrick Brobbey kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.