A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TOP Oss will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 The request is on a desk at TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Semen Padang for Sam van de Camp 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.
Oskar Sivertsen 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. Julian Kuijpers 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kian Visser
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TOP Oss 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 The request is on a desk at TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
1‑3 to FC Eindhoven, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Bouwman 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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; TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss, and 6 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Amir Absalem
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 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 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jong PSV were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oskar Sivertsen 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TOP Oss will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Oskar Sivertsen 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TOP Oss will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
At 18 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
At 22 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss 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. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aaron Bouwman is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss 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. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy 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 Thomas Kok trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss 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 Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The captaincy has been taken off Joey Sleegers. TOP Oss will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jasper Frimpong chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Looking aheadTOP Oss take on the side everybody is chasing
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Oskar Sivertsen scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Emmen, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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. 13 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. Oskar Sivertsen provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Aaron Bouwman, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 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.
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: Oskar Sivertsen. 2‑0 against Jong Utrecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss 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.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Nicolas Verkooijen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss 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 Ethan Butera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jasper Frimpong was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the TOP Oss dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutEthan Butera dropped after a run of poor form
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bart Schenkeveld 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.
“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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jasper Frimpong left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at TOP Oss 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.
In brief
The dugoutJulian Kuijpers has become a man the manager trusts
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Helmond Sport are out and TOP Oss go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Yaid Marhoum takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaid Marhoum provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Tarik Hamamioglu, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Thomas Kok, marked 7.81, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aaron Bouwman is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” TOP Oss have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Tahaui has just signed for TOP Oss, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at TOP Oss 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.
Nicolas Verkooijen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and TOP Oss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ethan Butera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” TOP Oss have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolas Verkooijen provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 TOP Oss, 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 TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The phone has started ringing about Khadim Ngom again, and this time the name on the line is PSM. TOP Oss are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Bart Schenkeveld 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.
TOP Oss asked and Twente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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.
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.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Umraniyespor for Tarik Hamamioglu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bas Hateboer 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Bart Schenkeveld 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 Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and TOP Oss will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and TOP Oss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and TOP Oss will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amir Absalem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
TOP Oss asked and NEC 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.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TOP Oss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bart Schenkeveld 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 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 TOP Oss know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and TOP Oss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and TOP Oss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Mauresmo Hinoke again, and this time the name on the line is ADO Den Haag. TOP Oss are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kas de Wit is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Go Ahead Eagles, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
TOP Oss asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy 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.
TOP Oss have made the call to Groningen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and TOP Oss 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Go Ahead Eagles is saying, and nobody at TOP Oss is enjoying the guessing.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Go Ahead Eagles have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. TOP Oss will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TOP Oss, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
TOP Oss asked and Groningen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at TOP Oss, another week without a signature from Thomas Kok.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
A loan enquiry to Go Ahead Eagles: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” TOP Oss have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kian Visser and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy 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.
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Delano Vianello signs something — a contract at TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss that is a harder question to answer.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. FC Eindhoven kept coming because nothing stopped them, and TOP Oss will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolas Verkooijen did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 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. 10 actions, 6.40, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at TOP Oss pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kian Visser trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolas Verkooijen did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.36, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
4 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.
“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; TOP Oss are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mert Erkan 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.
Chances created: 14. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Kian Visser was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
7.80, 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.
Nicolas Verkooijen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
11 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.
Marked 8.07 — 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 easiest signature of my career.” Furdjel Narsingh and TOP Oss agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jasper Frimpong on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Kian Visser 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 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at TOP Oss has been clear about where Thomas Cox stands, which is more than many ever get.
Sam Kersten 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.
Everybody at TOP Oss saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thomas Kok’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and TOP Oss needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at TOP Oss, another week without a signature from Julian Kuijpers.
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 Sil Milder has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Shots: 23, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurilio de Lannoy 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Justin Bakker will call it something else in private.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jasper Frimpong after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Cambuur defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A season average of 7.39 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. TOP Oss know what they have, and so, by now, does 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 TOP Oss 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. TOP Oss told Sam Kersten something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Bart Schenkeveld's mistake
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 TOP Oss know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jasper Frimpong after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jong Utrecht will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. TOP Oss were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 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.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Shots: 23. 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.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bart Schenkeveld 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.
TOP Oss 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Frimpong left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. RKC Waalwijk kept coming because nothing stopped them, and TOP Oss will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolas Verkooijen did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Sam Kersten 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolas Verkooijen. 1‑0 against ADO Den Haag, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
TOP Oss close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at TOP Oss training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Kersten 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 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Jasper Frimpong to a room that had heard them before.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. TOP Oss rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Almere City had no answer to any of it.
Nicolas Verkooijen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolas Verkooijen. 3‑2 against Almere City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
TOP Oss asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Stijn Meijer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
In brief
MatchStijn Meijer among the goals in a wild afternoon
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.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.24 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. TOP Oss know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Everything agreed with Den Bosch, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. TOP Oss have done the hard part with Heerenveen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 TOP Oss know it.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss 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 Maurilio de Lannoy 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 Frimpong after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
14 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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Thomas Kok and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
8 new faces, and TOP Oss 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 dugout21 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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Jasper Frimpong to a room that had heard them before.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelencio Esajas provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.18, 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 TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mert Erkan 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
Marked 6.63 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A mark of 7.84 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.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Nicolas Verkooijen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to TOP Oss.
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.” Jasper Frimpong, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Something was said to Stijn Meijer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TOP Oss lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolas Verkooijen did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for TOP Oss. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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 words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss 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 Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jong AZ next, and one man in the TOP Oss dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Justin Timber 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. TOP Oss will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TOP Oss lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” TOP Oss 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 TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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 whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Nicolas Verkooijen decided nobody was going anywhere. Emmen had no time left to answer.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
12‑0, and Nicolas Verkooijen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything TOP Oss tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Kian Visser takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kian Visser provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
12 goals in one match, Nicolas Verkooijen on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of TOP Oss and Jong Utrecht.
In brief
Player ratingsMarcelencio Esajas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Memphis De Vrij 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 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. TOP Oss told Nicolas Verkooijen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at TOP Oss has been clear about where Thomas Cox stands, which is more than many ever get.
Furdjel Narsingh is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelencio Esajas provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nicolas Verkooijen 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolas Verkooijen 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.
Everybody at TOP Oss saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal 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.
16 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
MVV Maastricht next, and one man in the TOP Oss dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Stijn Meijer a promise
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Kian Visser 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
7.25, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Quincy Hateboer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at TOP Oss, another week without a signature from Thomas Kok.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Amir Absalem is living that version at TOP Oss, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
TOP Oss close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss 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. Westerlo have kept their man, and TOP Oss go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ethan Butera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TOP Oss can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Thomas Kok and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arouna Kabba is living that version at TOP Oss, and it tends to show in the first month.
TOP Oss 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 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.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Joey Sleegers takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joey Sleegers provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.55 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“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 TOP Oss, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Justin Bakker delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Justin Bakker scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer from Willem II for Maxim Mariani 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: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TOP Oss this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Kian Visser 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 name of Maxim Mariani has come up in conversations TOP Oss were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Frenkie Gravenberch 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. Bas Strootman 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. Daley Wijnaldum 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 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Mariani commits to TOP Oss for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and TOP Oss 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 offer from PSM for Mauresmo Hinoke 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. TOP Oss will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at TOP Oss, another week without a signature from Joey Sleegers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maurilio de Lannoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.