Fee agreed, wages agreed, and De Graafschap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NEC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: KAA Gent keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
NEC asked and Sturm Graz 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
SquadWords at NEC training over how hard people work
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
NEC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Willem II, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Mexx Meerdink 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.
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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kenneth Timber 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.
Everything agreed with Willem II, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mexx Meerdink was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ethan Butera is a NEC player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Las Palmas have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around NEC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ahmetcan Kaplan is on it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Bryan Linssen is 36, with 481 appearances behind him, and NEC will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hamrun Spartans waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NEC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mexx Meerdink is on it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Umraniyespor will make the call about Jeremy van Haalen this week. NEC have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murad Boateng 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tjaronn Chery is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NEC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Adam Maher has written the date down.
Position 5, 64 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Jetro Willems has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The offer from Roda for Jasper Cillessen 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around NEC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mexx Meerdink 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 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The phone has started ringing about Jesaja Mustapha again, and this time the name on the line is Hamrun Spartans. 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.
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.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around NEC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
At 15 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ahmetcan Kaplan is on it.
In brief
The dugoutBryan Linssen knocks on the manager’s door
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Clement Bischoff is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mexx Meerdink and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Dennis Geiger has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at NEC has been clear about where Jamiro Monteiro stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mexx Meerdink is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adam Maher trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Roda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NEC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at NEC, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mexx Meerdink 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tjaronn Chery is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mexx Meerdink 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNoé Lebreton has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clement Bischoff 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 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.
Mexx Meerdink 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bryan Linssen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
64 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Somebody from Ajax has seen every one of Mexx Meerdink’s last few games. Nobody travels that far that often out of curiosity, and everybody at NEC knows it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Utrecht the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that NEC will enjoy reviewing.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. NEC will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Mexx Meerdink was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clement Bischoff is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Isak Hansen-Aarøen is on it.
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 Youssef El Kachati has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Crettaz is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jasper Cillessen has his answer from NEC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ahmetcan Kaplan signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Mexx Meerdink and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody 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.
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.
Position 5, 64 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Anas El Mahboubi 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.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marco Van de Beek is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jordy Frimpong is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Memphis 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jeroen 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.
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.
Jetro Willems has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutBram Nuytinck knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Position 5 on 64 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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 Darko Nejašmić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jamiro Monteiro is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mexx Meerdink 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.” Jasper Klaassen kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vince Schuurman 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Adam Maher will call it something else in private.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Feyenoord.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Gonzalo Crettaz: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stan Henderikx has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A point taken on 120 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The 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.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Crettaz is on it.
22 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mexx Meerdink. 1‑0 against AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NEC told Adam Maher something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.” Jasper Klaassen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Clement Bischoff, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jasper Klaassen on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Bryan Linssen
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Virgil Misidjan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout15 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 Jasper Klaassen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ahmetcan Kaplan is on it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ahmetcan Kaplan signs something — a contract at NEC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tjaronn Chery’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.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Mexx Meerdink talk too
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Twente; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Darko Nejašmić will call it something else in private.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Eli Dasa has come out of that comparison in the side, and NEC have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Crettaz is on it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
19 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at NEC until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Utrecht for Isak Hansen-Aarøen 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crvena Zvezda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Amir Saleh 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.
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.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at NEC is enjoying the guessing.
Mexx Meerdink and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Some 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Raf Braitman has agreed terms with Excelsior for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
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.
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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 offer from Vitesse for Jetro Willems 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.
Everything agreed with Excelsior, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jahlani Fonteni 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.
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 Moscow have kept their man, and NEC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Jasper Klaassen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 1‑0 win over De Graafschap, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
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 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Noé Lebreton commits to NEC for another 4 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Philippe Sandler's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
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.
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at NEC.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Mexx Meerdink was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Isak Hansen-Aarøen obliged against Twente. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is NEC.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
3‑0, and Tjaronn Chery took the headlines on an afternoon when everything NEC tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Clement Bischoff, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at NEC.
The dugout9 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.” Jasper Klaassen, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NEC told Thomas Ouwejan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tjaronn Chery. 2‑0 against AZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mexx Meerdink is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. NEC will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Cambuur, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Adam Maher
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mexx Meerdink. 1‑0 against Excelsior, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jasper Klaassen on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at NEC can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Clement Bischoff trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jasper Klaassen was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the NEC dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jasper Klaassen after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ahmetcan Kaplan has moved up it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
10 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Marked 7.09. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Jasper Klaassen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. ADO Den Haag defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The match ball belongs to Mexx Meerdink, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Clement Bischoff, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Virgil Misidjan 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 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.
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.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Jasper Klaassen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Heracles defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at NEC. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Bram Nuytinck
A brace, and Mexx Meerdink takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mexx Meerdink provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
NEC asked and Mouscron said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jasper Klaassen after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
91 minutes played. Clement Bischoff found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and De Graafschap went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Clement Bischoff did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and AZ 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mouscron keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 chase for Mexx Meerdink ended with $8.9M changing hands and AZ out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
The deal with Mouscron 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.
Mexx Meerdink was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $8.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Groningen scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
In brief
Player ratingsAn own goal to forget for Delé Thomas
$3.6M on the table at Heracles. 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 asked and Heerenveen 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 offer went to Feyenoord 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.
1 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tjaronn Chery 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.
Virgil Misidjan 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cody Strootman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from Charleroi for Ahmetcan Kaplan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Dasa 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.
10 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.
“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 Virgil Misidjan.
In brief
The dugoutTjaronn Chery asks for a word with the manager