Draakon

Logically, if your finances improve you should renew your wage structure, especially when being promoted to higher division, because you need more money to attract better players anyway. About specific players coming to you with wage demands, it's usually wise to shoo them away. The best case scenario is when you manage to convince the first one (for example using "you have enough time remaining on your contract" excuse) then the next ones are easy, because you'll get the "Player X recently came to me with a similar request" option in the dialogue box and at least in FM22 it settled most of the players. If you fail to convince them and they remain adamant that they should receive more money and finally get upset about you not agreeing to their request, it gets more tricky because their morale will slump for a while and then it depends on your reputation as a manager and popularity among the squad if there will be any sort of mutiny because of that or if the player will remain alone with his sulking.

Don't forget that remaining in the big club doesn't mean that he's not going to play. He will, of course. There are U-18 games, U-23 games, reserves league etc. Yes, it's not competitive football in a sense that there's not too much on stake, but he plays for the win nevertheless and his performances in those games should reflect his development and work in training sessions. Yes, competitive football is important, but the lower you go in league tier level (and/or countries) it could mean that the actual level of football drops. I'm not sure about League Two in comparision to Premier League, but for example I'm quite sure that if we have a 18 years old talented keeper in Premier League he wouldn't want to go to a club in Estonian top division even if it would give him a chance to fight for the nation's title. There's just too big of a gap in level of football and for his development it's probably better to play for U-23/reserves league.

I'm perfectly happy with explanation that players make mistakes, but part of me wants me to be those mistakes represented in player rating or assistant feedback or by performance analyst. Perfect example is that you can count some sort of mistakes (like lost tackle, lost header, missed interception, poor pass) in the match and it's more evident, but other shortcomings are not. For example if you concede because defender's positioning wasn't the best when opponents attacking move unfolded. Or he was just too slow, or hesitated to make a tackle. At the moment ME rating system punishes players for certain mistakes, but overlooks others. Lost challenges are counted, but wrong decision (not making a challenge) is overlooked. If a defender loses a lot of headers, it's reflected in his match rating, but if you at least challenge for a header and bother attacker enough his headers are far less dangerous. However, leaving an attacker unmarked and allowing a free header doesn't reflect in statistics, but it's a far more serious crime on the pitch. It makes sense in some way - you can't describe 100% of the football match in numbers and a lot of it remains for the manager to see and intercept, but on the other hand if you manage a big club that has a lot of backroom staff, pretty much responsible for providing all sorts of analysis you'd expect them to come up with data like "hey, we've conceded five chances in the last three games because our centre-back X is too slow and we play with a high defensive line" or "our fullback Y fails in one-on-one situations against technical wingers, you should changes his PI-s"

Interesting. If players are in the database it should be quite easy to implement August transfers into the game and it doesn't need a lot of coding and testing in my opinion. Certainly not three months worth of testing. If the actual reason is to wait until the beginning of the new season and also take, matches played at the beginning of the campaign into account to tweak player attributes or some more data, then obviously it takes longer.

Very well said by @Jack722 My own example (although from FM22) is that I play with Ajax and we play possession-based 4-2-3-1 with low tempo and short passing. It worked like a treat... until it didn't. The same happened as described above - teams started to come against us with cautious and defensive mindset, with bottom heavy formations and parked the bus very effectively. We circled around the area, but attacking players rarely found enough space to run into and chances became rare despite our possession. And, as it often happens in FM, opposition started to stun us with an odd counter-attack goal or used their couple of chances they got in the game. So, when I noticed that we can't get through in the first half, I started to switch tempo to normal. Slightly quicker tempo, circling the ball faster, attempting to overload their defence in certain areas. Quicker tempo also meant more counter-attacks from us (even though I didn't tick the 'counter-attack' box in the tactics screen), because my players moved the ball faster and found forward options right after winning the ball back. So suddenly we found space again and chances started to come. Morale of the story is that you don't need to overhaul your tactics if things don't work out. Very often it's just a small detail - a role of one player, personal instruction or a set piece solution that can make a huge difference.

It's been sometimes difficult, sometimes easy. In some seasons Feyenoord have had an impressive winning streak as well. Eredivisie clubs as a whole earn more from selling players than they are spending on new signings, so we're not the only club doing so (although we're taking it to bit extreme). I'm greedy as well - we're willing to let the star player go for £40m-£60m, but other teams tend to settle for around £20-£30m. For a few seasons we were the only club in the Champions League and the runner-up team usually got stuck in the play-offs and didn't make it to the group stage. Then Eredivisie got the second automatic spot and this year (2027-2028) all three big teams (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV) are in the Champions League proper. On one hand Champions League money should increase the spending power of our competitors and they're attracting better players because of it. On the other hand it's a distraction because it's easy to play only domestic games and go from win to win, gaining confidence and keeping morale up, but Champions League fixtures leave your players fatigued and/or injured for the next weekend and inevitable losses to European giants (for example PSV have both Real Madrid and PSG in their September schedule) will hurt morale, so I wonder if it has an impact to their Eredivisie form. The second thing to change this season (2027) is FC Groningen's and sc Heerenveen's drop to Keuken Kampioen divisie. Three new teams came up and the number of what I call small teams (Excelsior, Almere City, FC Emmen, De Graafschap, Helmond Sport etc.) has increased. They have a lot less quality and games against them should be mandatory wins for big clubs, so it might happen that there is a small number of decisive games between big clubs that will decide the fate of the title.

August 2027 Fixtures and Results We started off with a traditional Johan Cruijff Schaal. This time we had a home advantage, because it was held in Amsterdam, but we had to accept a narrow defeat to PSV Eindhoven. We fielded a little bit of an unfamiliar starting line-up and it looked like the players hadn’t gelled properly just yet. We had a small initiative in the first half, but couldn’t finish our half-chances and then in the second half we allowed PSV to counter after Haller lost possession in attack. I was a bit disappointed, because I felt that we didn’t really deserve to lose this one, but on the other hand we didn’t do enough to win it either. Our Eredivisie campaign kicked off with a match against FC Twente and things in attack looked much better in this one - we scored an early goal, Klaassen added another from penalty, but our defence looked a bit error-prone and we allowed FC Twente to score before Aning’s strike made it 3:1 at half-time. We continued in the same fashion after the break - two more goals, but conceded from an indirect free kick. In the end I could be happy with five goals, but to concede two at home was a bit too much and it will be addressed in the next training sessions. Amourricho van Axel Dongen was our creative spark up front - he had seven key passes, created five chances and finished with a goal and assist. Away trip to Arnhem was our first tricky game in the league schedule. In the pre-match press conference journalists reminded me that we haven’t won the last four games against Vitesse, so we were a bit careful and started with a balanced mentality, so the first half was a bit uneventful and both teams looked to defend carefully. I switched back to our usual positive and sent on Peter Misidjan. The young attacking midfielder had an instant impact on the game - his forward pass released Dramane Guehi and we scored our first goal just a minute after restart. Guehi added another goal with a simple finish from van Axel Dongen’s cross and Misidjan scored from a set piece. We couldn’t keep our clean sheet, though - Vitesse’s Majeed Ashimeru found the top corner with his strike from the edge of the area, so even though we looked pretty good defensively we conceded a goal. The last game in August was against Willem II. It’s curious that after FC Groningen and sc Heerenveen went down, the Eredivisie is full of smaller teams and the clubs like FC Twente, Heracles and Willem II can consider themselves top half teams. We did beat them 4:2 however, but the game reminded me of our win over FC Twente - we were good in attack and scored goals (even if luck had its part, like Kenneth Taylor’s opener from 24 metres that took a huge deflection from a defender and went in), but we conceded two goals and that is not good enough. Willem II has tall strikers and they played crosses to the box for their target man Darell Tokpa. Even though we knew what they wanted to do it was almost impossible to counter it with shorter defenders, so Tokpa headed in twice in the second half to keep Willem II in the game, but it wasn’t enough. Amourricho van Axel Dongen was again our best player on the pitch - he dished out three assists and gave six key passes to finish with 9.2 rating. Players and Tactics Our tactics haven’t changed, but the line-up is a lot different and it’s evident that the players aren’t too familiar with each other, but I hope it will get better in a month or two. We have a lot of young players in the starting eleven and in certain games some players have shown either nervousness or complacency and that’s something to keep an eye on as a manager. I need to know who can handle pressure and choose these players for big games. As predicted, the first team places were up for grabs and for several positions we have two equal players, so whoever performs better will get the next match. Surprisingly Sebastien Haller found himself on the bench for most of August - his mistake cost us a goal against PSV and his quiet performance didn’t impress, so Dramane Guehi got his chance against FC Twente. Guehi went on to score three goals in two games and suddenly Haller struggled to get back into the team. Similarly young Estonian Nikita Tamm has taken the left winger position over Moha and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson has been outperformed by ambitious Peter Misidjan. Very interesting to see how the season folds out, but my first intention is to find the best eleven for our first Champions League fixtures in September. Player of the Month: Amourricho van Axel Dongen - he hasn’t scored too many, but has been the creator from our right flank and replaced Antony well. Goal of the Month: Prince Aning vs. FC Twente - fierce strike into the top corner from 15 metres. Eredivisie Good start to the season from most of the contenders, only Vitesse hasn’t performed well in the first games. Our undefeated last season and good start to this one means we’re now 53 games unbeaten in Eredivisie - that’s a new record, as my personal assistant let me know. Champions League We were drawn to group C with AS Roma, FC Porto and Dynamo Kyiv. I think we did well to avoid big teams from second seeded clubs, but FC Porto and Dynamo Kyiv are perhaps a bit stronger than average from those choices. It’s a tricky group - if we’ll do well we might get through to the knockout stages, but it’s not guaranteed. Good news is that we have three Eredivisie clubs in the competition, because Feyenoord made it through the play-offs to the group stage. Hopefully we’ll get enough coefficient points to Eredivisie

Squad Update 2027 It’s a painful Summer - we’ve lost no less than four first team players and they’re all key players who we relied upon, especially in the Champions League level. We have enough talented youngsters to fill the ranks, but the drop in quality is undeniable, at least in the first months and it will be extremely difficult to repeat the success of previous seasons. Goalkeepers At least Jay Gorter is still here in the goal and hopefully will save our defence from inevitable embarrassment this season. Mert Alegoz is a capable second choice and with plenty of smaller teams in Eredivisie now, he should get around 10-15 games comfortably. Defence A lot of changes in our defensive line. Devyne Rensch is gone and Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi will be our first choice right-back from now on. The main problem is we didn’t have a proper substitution for him. Polish Pawel Wachowicz is honestly not ready to make a first team debut and other defenders lack versatility to play the position. Olivier Aertssen and Neal Viereck enjoyed the lack of competition last season and featured in almost all games, but young Can Tas looks very promising and has developed well on loan, so he’ll try to nudge at least Viereck out of the first team. Things are a lot better on the left - the position we lacked depth just a few years ago is now even a bit crowded - Prince Aning is a very good option, Jasper Vogels is our breakthrough prospect and did well in 6 games last season. Bedirhan Celikel is also rated as an Eredivisie level player, but he has to go on loan, because three players in one position is too much. Midfield Centre of the pitch looks familiar. Kenneth Taylor remained in the club, Davy Klaassen will provide leadership and experience, Bart Smits and Rico Speksnijder will be our rotation players and young Juremy Jansen is an understudy for Taylor. He’ll train with the first team and try to develop his determination to fulfil his potential. We have some interesting players coming up through the youth ranks, but I’m hoping that Klaassen will stick around for another couple of years - his contract is about to run out in 2028, but I’m positive we’ll reach an agreement and will extend it further. Attacking Midfield Here we have lost the most of the talent and quality we had last season. Antony has gone, so have Naci Ünüvar and Gabriel Misehouy. Virtually the whole creative midfield will be at least a couple of levels weaker than we’ve used to and we’ve also lost capable set piece takers in Naci Ünüvar and Antony. Because we generally have a surplus of left wingers and in my formation I’d prefer right-footed players to play on the left and left-footed players to play on the right wing, Amourricho van Axel Dongen and David Kalokoh make a transition to AMR IWa role - they both have a decent finishing ability to score goals when a chance will come and both are two-footed players. Young and ambitious Peter Misidjan will get his chance to impress in the AMC position, Stanis Idumbo Muzambo and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson will hope for more game time as well. We have a hot (but yet unproved) Estonian prospect Nikita Tamm on the left wing - he’s potentially a 5* player, but let’s see how his actual performances justify that hype. Moha will also feature more frequently on the left wing. There’s a lot of talent, but not enough experience and sadly some of the player personalities could be better. Some players are also more injury prone than others - Hlynsson and Kalokoh missed a lot of weeks last season and that almost guarantees that most of the players will get his fair chance in this campaign. I don’t have a proper first team choice in this line (except perhaps van Axel Dongen), so it’s interesting to see how it turns out. On the downside that attacking midfield is definitely not good enough for Champions League level and if we get through the group stage with those players I’d be really impressed. Strikers Three players are looking up for that position and all three are capable of playing my preferred CFa role. Sebastien Haller brings (international) experience and his goal scoring record so far has been impressive. Dramane Guehi really showed his ability in the last season and is driven to push for the first team place. Yoram Boerhout went on loan in search of more game time. Haller has still the pole position for the starting line-up in August, but it might not remain that way until Spring.

Summer 2027 Transfers We lost two key players in Devyne Rensch and Antony this Summer and we also knew that Julian Brandes will leave the club after his contract ran out, but July still brought some transfer news that was not met by good reaction from Ajax fans. Gabriel Misehouy attracted a £58m bid from Inter and although it was a bit shy of his £60m minimum release fee clause, I decided to accept and give him a chance in Serie A. FC Bayern then stepped in and offered £69m for Naci Ünüvar and the attacking midfielder packed his bags and moved to Germany. On one hand, both Naci Ünüvar and Misehouy were too good for Eredivisie and needed to move on and the money we received for them was good enough. I also knew that the AMC and AML position were the most packed with talented players and their departure will give chances to other youngsters who needed it, but at the same time it was dreadful to think that we lost all of our three creative midfielders in a single transfer window and that’s a huge gap in our first team in short term. I also decided to sell our young striker Björn Feldhofer for £200k + 40% next sale clause. He’s a talented youngster and I would have liked to keep him around because of his driven personality. He’s rated as 3,5* potential but his finishing attribute is just 6 and that’s not good enough for a striker in the first team. I can’t see him improve that much so it wouldn’t be a weakness. We had a bunch of talented strikers coming up from the academy in March, so we shouldn’t lack talent in the coming few seasons, so I’m sure Feldhofer won’t be missed. We had made some space in the first team with those moves, but few positions had still a surplus of players, so we loaned Ja-Ryong Kim to Vitoria Guimaraes for a season and Bedirhan Celikel went on loan to SK Rapid. I felt that three strikers is also a bit too much and we could find a loan move to Yoram Boerhout, but it had to wait until the transfer deadline day when a Ligue 1 side Clermont came with a loan bid and he went to France for a season. Contracts After our star players left it’s time to revise our contracts and tie down our future first team players. Amourricho van Axel Dongen earned a long contract extension until 2032. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi is almost irreplaceable at right-back and he too extended his deal until 2032 and Rico Speksnijder extended his deal until 2031. We’re still to negotiate with our two veteran players - Sebastien Haller and Davy Klaassen. Both are in their last season now, but I expect to agree terms for another year with both of them.

Season Summary 2026-2027 Competitions This season will be remembered for our invincible Eredivisie season and our 96 points is a new league record - a magnificent achievement and it shows how big was the gap between us and other clubs. We can’t rest on laurels, of course, but at the moment it makes me feel very confident about the future. We were competitive in the Champions League and got into the knockout stages, only to run against the brick wall called Manchester City. Nothing to be ashamed of - with our youth only policy European giants tend to have too much quality to compete against. So, no regrets. We managed to win the KNVB Beker again and now have three consecutive wins. A lot can go wrong in cup games and one mistake could end your campaign early, so I’m very happy that we have been able to keep that winning streak going. Finances Our turnover and profit hasn’t changed much over the years, but because we sell players and never buy we have around £760m in the bank and the board can feel very secure about finances. Players It was a challenging season for team selection - in some positions we didn’t have enough competition and that was especially true about defence. When Mert Alegoz went on loan and Mateja Milovanovic departed in January Jay Gorter played all games in goal and we had only two true centre-backs in Olivier Aertssen and Neal Viereck. Jasper Vogels emerged from youth ranks to provide options in the left-back position, but generally our defensive line was the same. On the other hand - in midfield and both wings we had a surplus of talents after Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Ja-Ryong Kim returned. I struggled to provide all players enough first team opportunities (even though some of them were injured from time to time). Julian Brandes failed to make it into the first team and will leave the club because of that, but further trimming of the squad is needed in that area. Different players were leading the team in different periods of the time. Antony was consistently good in attack and his goals+assists record was impressive. Sebastien Haller was unstoppable in attack before Christmas, but the African Cup of Nations in January caused a dip in his form and then Dramane Guehi started to show that he, too, can score when given enough first team opportunities. In Eredivisie our goal tally was impressive - we scored 94 times and conceded just 12 goals in 34 games, so a lot of clean sheets and just a bit short of 3.00 average goals per game. We were also extremely lethal from set pieces - our corner goals dried up a bit compared to previous seasons, but 6 goals from direct free kicks is a new Eredivisie record. We have excellent free kick takers in Kenneth Taylor, Antony and Naci Ünüvar and that paid dividends several times in important moments. Loan Players We didn’t loan out too many players this season, but those players had mostly successful seasons. Can Tas and Nikita Tamm spent a year in Almere City and both were solid first team players for our feeder club. Tamm managed to score13 goals and turned up to be one of our most talented youngsters, ending up in the NxG Top 50 list as well, so I have huge hopes for him. Can Tas developed nicely and his leadership skills could become handy in the future. We’re a bit thin in the centre-back department after Milanovic’s transfer in January. That’s why Can Tas will probably be staying in Ajax next season and can hope for at least some first team football. Young striker Yoram Boerhout was loaned to AZ Alkmaar. I could describe his status as a regular starter, because he featured in a lot of games, but his performances were very inconsistent - he scored 10 goals which indicates that he’s solid enough as a striker, but considering his game time and the status of the club he should have scored more - at least expectations were higher. In certain games (and both matches against Ajax) he disappeared on the pitch and looked awfully quiet. According to his attributes there is some sort of material for a complete forward, but there are some doubts about his future. It might be reasonable to sort out a more successful loan move for him in the next season. Goalkeeper Mert Alegoz went to Go Ahead Eagles in January to try and save them from relegation. That didn’t work out as hoped and his performances are difficult to judge, because as a goalkeeper you’re under a lot of pressure in the small club and are destined to concede a lot of goals, but his attributes showed that exposure to regular first team football has a huge impact to young players - he developed more on loan than he did in the previous six months in Ajax (although he got an occasional first team match in here as well). Left-back Bedirhan Celikel also showed improvements in his attributes and even his determination has improved while on loan (although his personality is still unambitious). Iti is possible that I have to make a decision about his future in Ajax this Summer, because he will enter his last year of contract and also turned 21 years old in January and this means he should either make it into the first team or move on. His attributes are decent and my coaches say that his potential is around 3,5* which is good enough, but because of his personality I’m not sure he will actually reach his potential and I’m reluctant to keep unambitious players in my first team. With Jasper Vogels emerging from the youth ranks I’m not under real pressure to find another left-back, so perhaps it’s wise to sell Celikel this Summer. Club Awards Eredivisie Awards We took a number of trophies in the award season - Olivier Aertssen won the Golden Boot, Jay Gorter impressed pundits with his 20 clean sheets and took the Goalkeeper of the Year award. PSV’s young star Erik Geurts was selected as the Young Player of the Year, but Dramane Guehi and Gabriel Misehouy made it into the top three. I was selected as the Manager’s Manager of the Year again.

Fixtures and Results Three games in May and we have to avoid defeats to complete our invincible league season. The fixture list wasn’t particularly challenging, but our last game is against Vitesse who look solid in top five places and in good form, so that could be a bit more difficult. A narrow win against Willem II Tilburg put us over the 90 points line, but the performance left a lot to desire. Antony squeezed in a shot from a narrow angle and that proved to be a winner, but we allowed momentum to shift in the beginning of the second half and in a period of 10-15 minutes Willem II managed to hit the woodwork three times, so we were a bit lucky to keep our clean sheet. Our opponents defended well with their 4-1-4-1 DM formation and our attack didn’t look the sharpest, but at least we got another three points on the board. Home win over FC Emmen was a bit uneventful - Gabriel Misehouy scored a brace (and took his goal tally to 10 in this season) and David Kalokoh scored his first goal of the campaign - I’m delighted that he hit the target after missing so much of the season because of two major injuries. Vitesse was one of the two teams who managed to get a draw against us in the first match between two clubs and they started strongly at GelreDome, too, but Haller’s header in 7’ gave us the lead. Vitesse’s Ritsu Doan had two of his goals chalked off for offside infringement, but in 18’ he finally scored and two teams went to half-time with a 1:1 score line. We were slightly better in the second half and created chances, especially in the final 20 minutes. Substitute Dramane Guehi scored in 86’, but it wasn’t the winner, because we allowed Vitesse to score again late in injury time and the game finished 2:2 - a bit disappointing, because our second half performance was good enough to win this game, but Vitesse are really good team and credit to them for fighting until the end. Players Three games look too few to judge players properly. Good news about the squad is that we’re finally almost fully fit and our players who struggled with long term injuries (Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson, for example) are finally fit again. Our medical staff will face Summer in a much better mood than they had in Spring. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - the most consistent in the squad. Goal of the Month: Antony vs. Willem II Tilburg - squeezed in from an impossible angle. Much technical skill needed to pull this off. Eredivisie That’s official - sc Heerenveen will go down to Keuken Kampioen Divisie. Go Ahead Eagles saved themselves with a win over FC Groningen in the final match day, so Groningen will play relegation play-offs. Two big teams in relegation trouble is the big surprise in this season’s table.

April 2027 Fixtures and Results Four games in April. We start with back to back fixtures against teams who are fighting against relegation, but our focus is clearly on the cup final against FC Twente. We won both of our two first games in April 4:1, although they were completely different matches. We allowed ADO to take a lead against us in a rather poor first half, but Naci Ünüvar saved us - the midfielder scored two beautiful free kicks to give us a 2:1 lead and in the second half we controlled the proceedings. Again our opponents were left to ten men after Chima Okoroji was shown his second yellow card in 65’ and you might say that ADO’s constant fouls were their undoing. In the end we finished with 28/12 shots and 3.66xG, so it looked like a fair result. This win also secured our ninth straight Eredivisie title. The next game against FC Groningen was a bit similar in a sense that I wasn’t at all happy with our first half. We were helped by an early own goal by Purcy Juliaans and managed to double our lead, but then allowed Romano Postema to walk straight through our defence and score right after our goal to put some pressure on us for the second half. FC Groningen retained hope until Gabriel Misehouy scored twice in the last minutes and put this game to bed. The cup final at De Kuip was a bit tougher than I anticipated, although our league games against FC Twente have not been too easy as well. They look like a team who can defend if they need to and they were definitely determined in the final. We struggled to get our shots on target in the first half and FC Twente were patient to wait for their chances - and they managed to build a couple of good attacks in the first period. However, we always held an initiative and our attack improved after the break - at first Sebastien Haller missed his clear cut chance in 56’, but the breakthrough came after I sent on Peter Misidjan in 73’. Devyne Rensch found him in front of the goal with his cross two minutes later and it was 1:0. Davy Klaassen scored from the spot in injury time to make it two and that was it - our third consecutive KNVB Beker win made both the board and some players really happy. For a moment it looked like we had nothing to play for after the cup final, but I was promptly reminded by journalists that we might break the Eredivisie points record and I was obviously motivated to put together the unbeatable season. We hadn’t lost a single match so far and we had only four more to go, so the players agreed to do their best to win them all. 4:1 proved to be the most popular score line this month, because it was our final result against FC Utrecht as well. Antony was the start of the game with his hat-trick. It’s become quite usual that I’m not happy with our first half performance and it was the case again, because we allowed FC Utrecht to equalise right after our opener, but we lifted our game in the second half and the final score was well deserved. Players Injuries have become more frequent in Spring and several players are out with smaller/moderate traumas, but at least the ones who have suffered long term injuries are getting fit again (Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and David Kalokoh). I’ve tried to play less with Antony and Rensch and at least in Eredivisie our next season’s right wing combination of Jermoumi and van Axel Dongen should do OK, but it’s probably not good enough in the Champions League level. We’ve scored plenty of goals in April and even though they’re fairly evenly distributed it means our top scorers stand out in the competition. Antony reached 20 goals this season and Sebastien Haller’s penalty against FC Utrecht marked his 30th goal of the year. Naci Ünüvar, Dramane Guehi and Amourricho van Axel Dongen also are in the double digits. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - attacking players have been inconsistent, but Aertssen has been the rock in our defence. Goal of the Month: Naci Ünüvar vs. ADO Den Haag - a brilliant free kick, curled around the wall. Contracts Rico Speksnijder signed a new three year deal until 2031. He’s a valuable squad player for us and deserved a raise. At the same time I failed to reach to agreement with Amourricho van Axel Dongen - we’re forced to find a new right winger after Antony’s departure and the best option at the moment is van Axel Dongen, but his agent insists that he’d be promised to play on the left wing as IWs. Sebastien Haller extended his current deal for another year, accepting a 25% pay cut. I believe he’ll score goals and lead the dressing room for another couple of years. Eredivisie Relegation battle continues to be tense and sc Heerenveen looks in real trouble now with only three games to go.

March 2027 Fixtures and Results We have two kinds of games in our schedule in March - we start off with a difficult away derby against Feyenoord in the cup semi final. Then hosting AZ Alkmaar who have proved to be tough opponents this season and a trip to Etihad where I need to get our tactics just right to avoid heavy beating. On the other hand we have a number of league games against smaller teams that we should win easily and that allow us to rotate the team and give rest to key players. The Klassieker derby at De Kuip was a great success and I was very happy with our 2:0 win. We had an early penalty when Naci Ünüvar was fouled right in front of the goal just a moment before he was about to receive a cross from van Axel Dongen. The referee gave a penalty and showed a yellow card, but in my opinion it could have been red, because it was a foul by the last defender. Sebastien Haller saw his penalty being saved (very rare for him), but reacted first and scored from the rebound. We controlled the rest of the game well, avoided unnecessary risks and limited Feyenoord attacks. Our opponents had the best chance of the game from a dangerous free kick in 17’, but Toma Basic curled it over the wall and against the crossbar. We maintained our control over proceedings until Feyenoord had to take more risks and Dramane Guehi scored our second goal late in the game - a lovely chip over the goalkeeper - and put the result beyond doubt. I was especially happy with the win because it was a tactical win - I felt that we were spot on with our approach and balanced attack and defence excellently. Another derby against AZ Alkmaar turned out to be a much easier win than anticipated - we didn’t give AZ any chances in the game and scored three goals. Dramane Guehi started again and scored a brace to make it 10 goals this season. Davy Klaassen added another goal from the spot. AZ players lacked their usual fighting spirit and their body language didn’t indicate a derby at all. I rested several first team players before our Champions League fixture and our next win over sc Heerenveen didn’t look as smooth, but another 3:0 final score showed that we are able to beat any team in Eredivisie even if we rotate some players. Again very solid defensively and although we didn’t play all out attack ,we scored three goals. Dramane Guehi was again leading the line with two goals. I hoped that we could at least put up a fight at the Etihad against City, but it wasn’t to be. We lost too many easy balls in midfield and after Haaland scored their first goal in 7’ it was pretty much game over for us. We weren’t under huge pressure, but City controlled the proceedings confidently and scored two goals each in the first and second half. Our best chance came late in the game when Antony got one-on-one against their goalkeeper, but curled it against the crossbar. Not good enough and obviously I know that our squad (especially defence) is not good enough to contain City, but the game left me wondering whether a more defensive mentality would have made a difference in this one. Worth a try next time. Either way, our Champions League campaign stops here. We returned to winning ways in the next league match against Fortuna Sittard. We controlled most of the game comfortably and Ja-Ryong Kim scored our first goal (his first for the club) and Fortuna’s Mickael Tirpan was sent off for a terrible tackle in 31’, but we somehow allowed the 10-men Fortuna to equalise out of nowhere in the end of the first half. The second half was much better, though, and three more goals secured all points from the home game. Fortuna made 22 fouls in this match and it was their undoing in the end, because another player was sent off in 73’ and we scored a penalty and added a goal from a free kick, so set pieces were clearly in our favour. Players and Tactics We failed collectively against City, but other games offered plenty of great moments. We generally defended well and scored a lot of goals and there’s a lot of confidence in the way that we play in recent months. After our Champions League campaign finished, I guess it’s reasonable to start to prepare for the next season, so Devyne Rensch and Antony will feature less in remaining games. I started to train Amourricho van Axel Dongen as a right winger (IWa) - he should take over from Antony and it means that youngsters will get more chances on our left flank. There’s been a lot of injuries in March - Naci Ünüvar, Devyne Rensch and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson were missing part of the month with various injuries, David Kalokoh returned to full fitness before the sc Heerenveen match and Moha picked up a knock in the end of the month. All those fitness problems have forced some of the squad selections and made things a bit more difficult for us, but fortunately it hasn’t affected our results too much. Player of the Month: Dramane Guehi - scored five goals in March and showed that he could compete with Haller for a place in the first eleven. Goal of the Month: Dramane Guehi vs. Feyenoord Rotterdam - calm finish with a chip to secure our derby win. Eredivisie PSV Eindhoven have secured their runner-up position and three clubs battle for the third place. Relegation fight is still fierce and it’s not at all clear who will go down this season. Youth Intake The bunch of youngsters who arrived in March is pretty good in my eyes, although my head of youth development called it an average intake. But for me there were two main differences compared to previous years: I got a potential star striker and a number of decent prospects who could make it into the first team if they work hard enough in the next years The overall characters were much better than we had a few years back. Most of the players had good determination and professionalism and only a couple of ‘unambitious’ characters who had also low potential, so I had no problems to strike them off the list So, this is the top talent list for the intake: John Meeuwis That is the boy who was talked up for me in December - only 15 years old and already a 1,5* striker. I see a great future for him already. His arrival should put away all fears about Haller’s retirement. Rik Vos Decent young centre-back. Brave and determined and good with the ball as well, so suits my favourable BPD role well. A bit slow and that might be a problem because we play with a high defensive line, but we have time to work with that in extra sprint sessions. Riswan Sinaga A decent goalkeeper prospect with Indonesian roots. Not particularly good in anything, but doesn’t have too many glaring weaknesses either and with his fairly professional character I’m sure he’ll make the most of our coaching staff and training facilities.

February 2027 Fixtures and Results Home game against Go Ahead Eagles was a chance to rotate the squad. A lot. Just a few first team players in the starting line-up. Jay Gorter in goal, Antony on the wing with Naci Ünüvar who was returning from injury and needed match fitness, and Olivier Aertssen in defence but the rest of the starting line-up were our rotation players and 17 years old Jasper Vogels made his debut for the club as a left-back. It left an impact on our game in the first half - Eagles had the initiative for the first 10-15 minutes but then Dramane Guehi struck from 20 metres and scored a beautiful goal to make it 1:0 and give us the lead at half-time. One of the candidates for the best goal of the month already. I was critical to our performance in my half-time team talk and things improved after the break - Antony quickly scored the second goal and set up Naci Ünüvar for the fourth before scoring from a free kick (another beauty in that game). Eagles were left with 10 men after Boyd Lucassen received his second yellow card and Peter Misidjan wrapped things up with a late goal to make it 5:0. Pretty impressive score in the end, but we fully deserved it with our 4 clear cut chances and 3.75 xG. I didn’t need to send out our other first team players and only made two substitutions in the game (one of them forced, after David Kalokoh came off with an injury). The cup game against Willem II didn’t pose much of a challenge either. Sebastien Haller was back in the line-up and got us going with two goals in the first half. Willem II’s Max Svensson scored one goal in 33’, but Naci Ünüvar scored with a beautiful strike from some way out just before the half-time whistle and that was game over. Gabriel Misehouy finished things off with our fourth goal in the second half. Our 5:0 home win over PEC Zwolle was equally convincing - Dramane Guehi started in attack and the game was his show - Guehi finished with four goals, Antony added one and we didn’t give PEC Zwolle enough space to start a come-back. Brilliant win and Guehi’s 10.0 rating in this game was a sign of standout performance. The fixture list offered us several small clubs in a row and we continued in fine form - Helmond Sport was beaten in an away game 4:1, even though I rested several first team players and rotated the team heavily. It looked like our confidence was sky high after recent results and goals seemed to come easy to us. We conceded once, but that didn’t matter much. Squad rotation allowed us to keep our legs fresh before a tough match against Manchester City and Champions League looked more important at this point. We played a good game against Manchester City. You might say that we managed to control the midfield more in the home game, but Phil Foden’s excellent strike in 11’ was our undoing. We managed to create three half-chances (and City created none!) but failed to score and eventually had to accept a narrow 0:1 defeat with a good performance. That’s a bummer, because I suspect that the second leg at Etihad will be much more difficult. We finished February with a terribly poor game against FC Twente. A drab match where we didn’t create almost anything in attack, but Aertssen’s header from a corner gave us all three points. Probably the ugliest win this season. It could have been worse, because FC Twente had a penalty at the end of the first season, but their taker sent the ball right into the hands of Jay Gorter. Players After disappointing news about Devyne Rensch and Antony leaving, we’re slowly starting to prepare for their departure. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi could expect more playing time in the DR position and Amourricho van Axel Dongen will start to train more playing on the right wing. With Mateja Milovanovic gone, we need some depth in left defence and youngster Jasper Vogels was promoted into the first team - he’s just 17 years old, but made his first team debut against Go Ahead Eagles, played full ninety minutes against Helmond Sport and he looks like a good future replacement for Prince Aning. With those changes we have dealt with most of the player contracts that will run out in 2027 and I turned my sight to the future to avoid the situation that we found ourselves with Rensch and Antony. We should tie down talented youngsters for a longer period, before their salary expectations get too high for the club to fulfil. In that process Peter Misidjan signed a new contract - £5,000 p/w deal which will keep him in the club until 2031. We scored a huge number of goals in February. Dramane Guehi added a lot to his tally and Sebastien Haller returned to the line-up and continued from where he left off before the African Cup of Nations. Haller’s second goal against PEC Zwolle was his 200th league goal - impressive achievement. Player of the Month: Antony - the right winger was our creative spark in attack with three goals and four assists in February Goal of the Month: Dramane Guehi vs. Go Ahead Eagles - outstanding strike, curled into the top corner from 20 metres. Eredivisie Feyenoord have dropped to 4th position. Relegation battle is still fierce with five teams within a single point. Surprisingly, FC Groningen and sc Heerenveen are amongst them.

January 2027 We have some really tricky games coming up in January. We’re up against Heracles Almelo again in an away game, shortly after our league away fixture against them in December. We have a good lead in the Eredivisie table, but we have two important derby games against PSV and Feyenoord in January (both are away games) and it’s safe to say that if we won’t lose those games, it’s really difficult to challenge us for the title. We have a full squad available at the beginning of January, but it’s 2027 and it’s time for another African Cup of Nations, so Sebastien Haller will be away for at least two weeks with the national team and we have relied on his goals a lot this season. Big chance for Dramane Guehi to step forward in important games. Fixtures and Results We played a fairly good first half against Vitesse and controlled the midfield in the home game, but our attack lacked a bit of creativity and it’s evident that Guehi is not as good a CFa as Haller is. He can spot a pass, but he does it just less frequently and his one through ball to Antony didn’t lead to a goal. The result was decided in the beginning of the second half when Devyne Rensch was too late to make a tackle and his foul was judged to be enough for a red card by Jochem Kamphuis. We reorganised and prepared for more attacks from Vitesse, but apparently our opponents were happy with just one point from Johan Cruijff Arena and didn’t put us under a lot of pressure. It was a fairly quiet second half and it remained goalless in the end - our 18 games long winning streak ended here, but I wasn’t too disappointed. Games like this happen when one of your players is sent off and you need to cope with that and to get a draw from here was good enough. We returned to winning ways against SC Cambuur - an early penalty helped us and Dramane Guehi got his name on the score sheet to make it 2:0. In this game our opponents were left to ten men just before half-time and so the second half was much more relaxed for us. Our left-back Prince Aning scored the best goal of the game with a well struck half-volley from an acute angle that landed at the far post. Very comfortable home win and good reaction to the Vitesse result. I felt well prepared for our cup game against Heracles Almelo, because we did beat them just in December and it was an away game, too and didn’t feel too difficult. It was the best moment for a small rotation in midfield before two difficult derby matches. Some of our selection choices were forced anyway because of Haller’s absence and Naci Ünüvar’s injury. The cup game against Heracles included a pretty good first half - we created some good chances and dominated midfield, despite giving a day off to Davy Klaassen and Devyne Rensch - but our finishing lacked class and only a good strike from Guehi gave us the lead before half-time. I made substitutions in the second half - took off Antony and Gabriel Misehouy and did it perhaps a little bit too early, because it hampered our attack and made things easier for Heracles in defence. We still controlled the midfield and got plenty of set pieces (12 corners in the game), but couldn’t score any more goals. 1:0 is still a win, but I wasn’t impressed with our first half performance and in the second half we were outright poor, so players heard some constructive criticism after the match. Next - two away derbies. We went to Eindhoven without Haller, Misehouy and Naci Ünüvar. That basically halved our attacking potential. On the other hand we looked really good in defence and kept PSV attacks under control. Our balanced 4-2-3-1 formation suited better for us and their 5-3-2 WB didn’t work out at all. The only goal of the game came in the first half - Devyne Rensch found Antony on the run with an accurate forward pass and the winger placed his shot calmly into the net. PSV had five attempts in the game, but none of them went on target, so one goal was enough for us and we took an important away win. The Klassieker derby started with a slow first half and neither of the two teams offered anything exciting in attack. In the last ten minutes before half-time we managed to create a few half-chances and then carried this initiative to the second half. The best opportunity was Kenneth Taylor’s free kick from a promising position, but we finally took the lead after Antony finished a lovely combination from the middle. We looked well in control of the second half, but an unfortunate own goal from Olivier Aertssen in 87’ gave Feyenoord the equaliser and we dropped two points in a very unlucky manner. I was disappointed, because our game in the second half was much better and we deserved to win, but in the standings that draw didn’t cause any damage to our position and I was impressed with our performance with so many players missing. Players We have missed a lot of players in January - Sebastien Haller due to the African Cup of Nations, Naci Ünüvar due to injury. Gabriel Misehouy was ill and had to skip a game, Devyne Rensch served a suspension for his red card etc. Considering all this I’m quite happy with our results this month and some of the players (namely Dramane Guehi and Peter Misidjan) have impressed in league games. If we can continue to build on that then the future looks bright for us. Because of his absence Haller didn’t add any goals to his tally, but Antony has reached 14 goals and 11 assists and he’s our main creative force in attack. Player of the Month: Jay Gorter - difficult to point out the one player in January. Antony scored in both derby games, but Gorter was consistently good throughout the month. Goal of the Month: Prince Aning vs. SC Cambuur - not too many goals in January, but the left-back scored the best of those with a well-placed half-volley from acute angle Transfer Window The obvious culmination of my poor contract and plater management was that both Antony and Devyne Rensch will leave this Summer. There was plenty of interest in both of their services and in the end Antony signed for Tottenham and Rensch agreed to join Manchester City. However, our ranks are bolstered for the remainder of this season, because Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Ja-Ryong Kim returned from loan. This causes more problems than solutions because AMC and AML positions are rather crowded even without them and adding more players into the mix might cause upset about playing time. On the other hand, we sent goalkeeper Mert Alegoz back on loan to Go Ahead Eagles - he did spend a very productive season there a year ago and Eagles are now fighting against relegation and in search of every available help they could get. On the deadline day Everton swooped in and offered £9,75m for Mateja Milovanovic. After thinking for an hour I accepted the bid because he really wanted to go to Liverpool and so he moved to England - we’re a bit thin in defence and that transfer may cause us problems in the short term, but in the long run I feel that it was a good decision. Milovanovic is now 22 years old and he’s unlikely to improve further. His balanced personality makes him a poor mentor and he has some flaws in his game (like below average teamwork). To get almost £10m for him is very good money and I’m quite convinced that he will flop remarkably in the Premier League because he’s nowhere good enough for that standard, but his performances have been well above his actual ability lately and so it’s the best time to sell him. Eredivisie We have a huge lead, but the bottom of the table is a lot more exciting - small teams like Helmond Sport and FC Emmen are well above the relegation zone. FC Groningen picked up their first win in a while, but ADO Den Haag, Fortuna Sittard and sc Heerenveen are struggling. It’s interesting to see whether small teams will drop back into the danger zone or bigger teams pick themselves up and find some much-needed form in the final third of the season.

December 2026 Fixtures and Results Our fixture list is a bit easier for December. The last Champions League game doesn’t change anything and we can approach it without pressure. We’re up against smaller teams in Eredivisie, although most of the fixtures are away games, so they’re all potentially tricky if we get complacent, but KNVB Beker draw has been tough - we return to AFAS Stadion to have another Noord-Hollandse derby against AZ Alkmaar and that comes already in the second round. The first match against SC Cambuur was indeed a tricky one. It was a drab match and neither of the teams could create decent chances. Sebastien Haller hit the post in 11’, but that was our only remarkable moment until Kenneth Taylor curled a free kick around the wall and into the top corner in the dying minutes of the game. A narrow win with rather unremarkable performance. After that narrow win I was bold enough to rotate and made eight changes in our line-up for the Helmond match. We played a poor first half against them - home fans spurred us on and we had midfield under our control, but probably because of our changes our attack was a bit out of sync and players failed to connect that final pass to lead us to goal. Naci Ünüvar finally rescued us in the second half - his brilliant free kick soon after the restart of the game made it 1:0 and that opened things up. Davy Klaassen scored from the spot before van Axel Dongen made it 3:0 with a nice volley. Helmond made 32 fouls in this game and collected 6 yellow cards - their tactics to stop us at all cost was clear, but it didn’t work out, because two of our three goals came from set pieces from said fouls and we always looked fairly dangerous from dead ball situations. I was happy with our second half performance and 3:0 is a solid final score. Our last match in the Champions League didn’t decide anything in the table, but honour was at stake anyway and I didn’t want to lose in front of our home fans. Things started poorly for us - Zenit’s Anthony Elanga found space behind our defence and scored a quick goal in 3’. We had clear initiative in the first half after that goal, but we missed some good chances before Sebastien Haller finally equalised and then the floodgates were open - Antony scored with an excellent finish five minutes later and Gabriel Misehouy made it 3:1 before half-time, but then Elanga doubled his tally right before the whistle and we went to the break with a narrow 3:2 lead. Second half was much more controlled from both teams and it remained 3:2. I was pleased with our attacking performance, but our defence showed some vulnerability again at Champions League level. Zenit doesn’t have the best attacking players in their squad, but Elanga’s off the ball movement and technical ability was enough to punish us twice. The Noord-Hollandse derby against AZ Alkmaar was the match I was most anxious about in December. We did win the away game in Eredivisie 1:0 against them and it was a real battle, so I was prepared for a tough game and expected them to look for revenge. I opted for a balanced mentality that worked quite well in the said league game. To my surprise, it worked like a treat and we dismantled AZ completely in the first half - Sebastien Haller scored a perfect hat-trick (right leg, left leg, header), Olivier Aertssen scored from a corner, Antony and Naci Ünüvar each had a goal and when the half-time whistle called it was 6:0. Some of the AZ fans were already gone from the stands before the second half started. To be fair, their striker had a couple of good chances in the first half in the first fifteen minutes, but they couldn’t find the net and their manager could probably wonder if it would have been a different game when they scored first. They had even more moments in the second half when our complacency kicked in, but Jay Gorter was good in our goal to make important saves and keep our clean sheet. It finished 6:0 and that was one of the most impressive first halves I’ve ever seen as a manager. The KNVB Beker second round had some tough draws, because FC Utrecht was up against Feyenoord and were also defeated at home, so AZ Alkmaar and FC Utrecht were both out of the cup very early. Our trip to Emmen marked probably our last game at De Oude Meerdijk - the smallest stadium in Eredivisie at the moment, but FC Emmen is preparing to move to their new ground in the next year, so we’ll never come back here. The last match was a pleasant one, though - we rotated a lot, young Peter Misidjan started in the AMC position and opened things up with a lovely strike into the top corner from 21 metres. Whatever plans FC Emmen had to defend carefully and keep their clean sheet were out of the window. The penalty in 24’ made it 2:0 and then our opponents sort of collapsed - Olivier Aertssen headed in a corner before Antony made it 4:0 before half-time. Some complacency and poor defending allowed FC Emmen to score after the break, but Dramane Guehi replied with our fifth goal and it was a pretty convincing result in the end. The FC Emmen defence just couldn’t cope with our attack. We won our last game of the year 1:0, but it should have been a more comfortable score line. We created a lot of chances in an away game against Heracles, but Gabriel Misehouy’s goal in 10’ remained the only time we actually beat their goalkeeper. Heracles didn’t pose too much of a threat in attack and I actually expected more resistance from a team who is looking for a top half finish, but obviously I’m not complaining about another three points. Tactics and Players Tactically we’ve been really good in December and our control possession style works well - we’ve had 60+% possession in every match (even against Zenit) and 70% against FC Emmen. Keeping the midfield against smaller teams isn’t surprising and playing for quick counter-attacks against us could be an obvious tactical choice, but we’ve limited the chances of opposition well. In attack we’ve scored plenty of goals and I’m happy to see that goals are coming all over the place - many names on the score sheet, all sorts of different goals from through balls, penalties, corners and even a couple of beautiful strikes from outside of the box. Free kicks have been crucial in December - Kenneth Taylor won the game for us against SC Cambuur with a free kick and Antony’s free kick broke the deadlock against Helmond. We have three good set piece takers in the team in Taylor, Naci Ünüvar and Antony and it’s nice to see that their skills with dead ball lead to actual goals in games. Our attack has perhaps been a little bit one-sided. Sebastien Haller has scored 23 goals, but he’s not even leading the Eredivisie goal scoring charts - he has 13 league goals, but Feyenoord’s Georginio Rutter reached 14 in the last match day. Antony has added 12 goals and 10 assists. David Kalokoh made his return from injury against FC Emmen and Moha is back in full training too. At times it looked like we could use another winger option when van Axel Dongen was deployed on the right wing, but now we’re back to full fitness and I have more flexibility to rotate after Christmas. That’s certainly good news. Player of the Month: Sebastien Haller - the striker played in only three games in December, but impressed with four goals and his hat-trick against AZ Alkmaar was a superb show of class. Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. FC Emmen - that’s a difficult choice. At least four brilliant goals caught my attention in December, but Misidjan’s attempt from 21 metres against FC Emmen caught everyone by surprise and the youngster gets the award Youth Intake Preview The early report in December promises an excellent intake with at least three good strikers. That’s something to look for, knowing that Sebastien Haller is reaching the end of his career. Contracts It was the last opportunity to sort out player contracts before the January transfer window. Antony had no interest in renewing his deal, so he’ll be off for bigger leagues next Summer. Devyne Rensch was offered a new deal and a lot more money than I’d be willing to pay usually, but we failed to reach an agreement despite that offer, so his future with us is still in doubt. Sebastien Haller signed for a one-year extension with a significant pay cut (£43,000 p/w). He’s still an excellent finisher and goal scorer and we might need him in the next season Stanis Idumbo Muzambo signed an extension until 2029 - I’m a bit sorry that he hasn’t got enough playing time so far, but he has significant potential and I want to keep him around. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi signed a new deal until 2031 - he’s our main right-back if Devyne Rensch should leave. Neal Viereck also earned a new deal. He’s a player who constantly outperforms his attributes, but we’re rather thin in defence and he should be a rotation/backup player for a couple of seasons. Eredivisie It’s the first time we’ve come through our first 17 games with straight wins and 51 points. Feyenoord have lost a lot of ground and they’ve even lost their second position to AZ Alkmaar. We’re 12 points ahead in the table with a game in hand and it looks like we’re running away with the title already in December. There have been a lot of manager movements in December. Siem de Jong was sacked by FC Utrecht and Utrecht quickly hired Barak Bachar from Fortuna Sittard. But when Oliver Neuville was released from his position as the sc Heerenveen manager, de Jong was offered the position so the former Ajax player is now in charge of Heerenveen. Champions League We collected 13 points from 6 games and I’m clearly happy with our group stage performances, but we’re up against Manchester City in the first knockout round and our hopes to get into the quarter finals are rather slim.

November 2026 Fixtures and Results We started off with a convincing win over Fortuna Sittard. The first half was actually quite poor from us and we failed to create proper chances, but we took the lead from a penalty and in the end of the first half Fortuna’s Mickael Tirpan earned his second yellow card, so we demolished their ten men team after the break. Good game where I could make substitutes already in 60’. We returned from our trip to Austria with a 3:1 win. We were a better team in attack and scored two goals in the first half. Haller added third from the spot, but we then allowed Austria Wien to get one on the scoreboard from a corner. The game itself was a bit frustrating at times, because our central defence was leaky and we lost too many headers in midfield. Austria Wien exploited it perfectly, flicking the ball into the spaces we weren’t covering and building up their attacks like that. Viereck and Milovanovic wasn’t on par and actually got away with many mistakes in this game. We were clear favourites for the home game against FC Groningen, because our opponents were clearly struggling and their manager Frans Adelaar was under a lot of pressure with their 16th position in the table. We controlled the game from start to finish, but weren’t able to finish off the chances we created. Amourricho van Axel Dongen wasted two good opportunities in the first ten minutes (and looked nervous ever since). The second half wasn’t much better, but I sent on young Peter Misidjan who started to find his teammates with good passes. Antony stepped up and showed everybody how to finish with his two goals in the last ten minutes - both were technically excellent goals even though his position wasn’t the best. Misidjan assisted both goals and showed excellent vision and passing skills in attack. Good result in the end, but our finishing in the game was indeed terrible - our shooting was just 24/5 with 3.06 xG and we should have put this into bed much earlier. Then it was time to host Feyenoord in the most important game in Eredivisie so far. We had a small initiative in the game (it was Johan Cruijff Arena, so we should have) and took the lead in 42’ when Naci Ünüvar placed his shot right next to the post to break the deadlock. Feyenoord had defended well so far, but had to open up their defence more in their search for equaliser in the second half, but already in 51’ we had the second goal - Antony put their defender under pressure, won the ball, cut in from right wing and curled it into the top corner - what a brilliant piece of play from the winger. Sebastien Haller added the third from close range and Feyenoord was soundly beaten in our home. I was delighted with our defence - we didn’t allow them to get any real chances in this game and to supporters it might have looked like a fairly one-sided fixture. I’m sure it’s another story at De Kuip. We started bravely at Anfield - I set the team up with a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation and tweaked our lines lower and in the first half we were truly magnificent, scoring two goals and went to the break with a 2:0 lead. Liverpool woke up in the final five minutes and we were under pressure right before half-time whistle, so it was clear that their intention was to gear things up and prove their worth and that was exactly what happened in the second half - we got nowhere near their box in attack and were left to defend in front of our goal, but it was all fruitless - their superior players showed their individual skills - Luis Diaz, Yusuf Demir, Jordan Henderson and Mo Salah scored to make it 2:4 and overcome their 0:2 first half deficit. In the end they were a clearly better team in this match. I was left wondering if changing something tactically at half time could have helped to preserve our lead, but I had no good ideas either. The final match in November was an away game with PEC Zwolle. I rotated the team a little and some players looked a bit nervous on the pitch (not sure if it’s related to the Liverpool defeat that took away some confidence), but we were more wasteful with our chances than usual and it took some time to score goals. Haller and Antony got on target and a 2:0 was an OK result in the end, but we had 73% possession in this game and probably should have won by a bigger margin. Players and Tactics Sebastien Haller has scored 19 goals and is leading the Eredivisie goal scoring table with 13 from 13 games. Antony has 9 goals and 7 assists in all competitions and he has the best average rating (8.08) in Eredivisie at the moment. Interesting news item caught my attention - according to this, we’re the top development club for Europe. This season 101 players who are currently in the top divisions of Europe have come through Ajax youth systems. So, at this point we really have the best youth system in Europe. Player of the Month: Antony - impressive month from our star player. He scored 5 goals and gave 4 assists with an average rating of 8.3 in those six games. Goal of the Month: Antony vs. Feyenoord Rotterdam - a beautiful solo goal, curled into the top corner against our rivals. Eredivisie We still have a 100% record in the league and after beating Feyenoord in the Klassieker derby they’re seven points behind us. PSV have climbed back into European places and look for the position in top three. Frans Adelaar was finally sacked by the FC Groningen board. Champions League All clear in our group before the final match day.

October 2026 The October fixture list includes only four games (plus one long international break). Our South Korean youngster Ja-Ryong Kim got his first call-up to the national team and that’s quite a remarkable achievement, because the South Korean team is very strong at the world level. Fixtures and Results In the only match before the international break we hosted FC Twente Enschede. Being comfortable favourites, we struggled to create really good chances in the first half and our game before the break wasn’t too convincing. One good attack after the break gave us the lead, but it took us until injury time to score our second goal and secure all three points - Milovanovic scored from a corner (another set piece goal for us). The final score looked solid enough, but we left it too late and I would have preferred to give more game time for younger players in the second half. With 1:0 on the scoreboard I was forced to make safer substitutions in the second half. We were much better against Heracles Almelo, despite the fact (or because of that?) that we rotated more, as some of the players returned with tired legs. We controlled the first half completely, scored an early goal and went to half-time with a convincing 4:0 lead. Antony scored the best goal of the game with a lovely free kick from 20 metres. I admit that the chances we had weren’t perhaps the best, but our finishing was more than clinical and four goals were well deserved. However, complacency was evident in the second half and in the last 30 minutes we allowed Heracles to have more time with the ball and let them create some good attacks. Their striker Ragnar Ache scored in 69’ to give them something positive from the game. After the final whistle I wasn’t sure if conceding was a good thing or bad. Either way, it allowed us to reprimand the team and warn players about complacency. Let’s hope that it leads to improved performances in our next games. Our home game against Austria Wien didn’t look particularly challenging. The Austrian team had just one non-grey player in their squad list and despite being in the Champions League didn’t look like they could really stand a chance in that group. With a trip to AFAS Stadion coming up, I was tempted to rotate more than I expected and in the end, I did. Most notably youngster Moha started on our left wing. The game itself met my expectations - we controlled the first half completely and created good chances. Gabriel Misehouy scored, Haller added another goal from the spot and van Axel Dongen (playing on the right wing) saw his deflected shot going in to make it 3:0. Complacency started to appear after the third goal and our opponents found some gaps in our defence in the last 30 minutes, using one of their three half-chances. The end of the game was a disappointment (and a chance to play down our performance in my post-match team talk), but the truth was we were well above Austria Wien and deserved to win - 3.47 xG and 4 clear cut chances speak for themselves. The Noord-Hollandse derby was the big test this month. AZ Alkmaar was in good form, holding the third place in the table after eight match days and their squad looks formidable enough to challenge for top three places. Going against them in an away game didn’t look like an easy task and evidence of our complacency in our previous games were already noting that there’s a match coming up where we fail to perform on our usual level. I opted for a balanced mentality and it worked perfectly. AZ Alkmaar was way too cautious. We didn’t create too many chances in attack, because we were more careful with the ball and played less risky passes, but one goal in the first half was enough to win the game. The second half was slightly better and Peter Misidjan was very close to scoring when his attempt hit the upright in 65’, but we didn’t allow AZ to create anything dangerous in our box and Jay Gorter had little to do in this game. Good 1:0 away win against a strong team and I was very happy with this result. Tactics and Players In those four games we’ve rotated quite a bit and different players emerged in different games to score goals and create chances. I’m very happy that Peter Misidjan is showing his talent at the Eredivisie level and he’s a good option from the bench if we need to change something in attack. My substitutions in the past games have been based mostly on what sort of body language the players show during the games and sadly some of them (Moha, Jermoumi and Idumbo Muzambo, for example) are often nervous or anxious and I wouldn’t send them out if the game is level or we need another goal to win. That’s something to address via mentoring or character building. Antony and Devyne Rensch contract situation hasn’t changed - they’re still expecting somewhere between £150,000-£200,000 p/w deals and I’m not willing to pay that much, so there’s a lot of big clubs circling around Antony and hoping to make an offer in January. Naci Ünüvar has developed well (and performed even better) and his performances have caught the attention of Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - attacking players were all a little bit inconsistent, but Aertssen played in three games with an average rating of 8.0. Really good form from him. Goal of the Month: Antony vs. Heracles Almelo. An unbelievable free kick from 20 metres. Eredivisie We have straight wins from the start of the season, but Feyenoord remains close to us in the table. PSV Eindhoven is already dropped into the middle of the table. At the bottom FC Groningen and Go Ahead Eagles are most likely to change their managers if results will not improve quickly. Champions League We’ve done really well and have seven points from the first three games. I don’t expect to win the group, as the away game at Anfield looms in the distance, but we’ve put ourselves in the best possible position to secure qualification to the knockout stages. In the other group Feyenoord has also impressed - they’re second in their group and only lost 0:1 to Manchester City. Feyenoord’s season is even more impressive, knowing that they’re doing well on both fronts.

September 2026 The international break was productive - Estonians Nikita Tamm and Artur Sakarias made their debuts for the national team (indicating that there aren’t too many Estonians in the game, as almost every player who turns 19 gets an invitation to the main team). Another thing that I’ve become used to is that our youngsters return from the U-21 competitions exhausted and I struggle to field a proper team in the first match after the window. Fixtures and Results We returned to the Eredivisie action with a trip to Galgenwaard and we had some struggles with fitness. Olivier Aertssen, Gabriel Misehouy and Prince Aning looked a bit tired, Antony and David Kalokoh were still out with injuries and Dramane Guehi sprained his knee ligaments in training and he’ll be sidelined for more than a month as well. FC Utrecht on the other hand looked really strong on paper - I reckoned they could be the fifth strongest team in the league after the big three and AZ Alkmaar - no clear weaknesses in the team and it was their home game, so I prepared for a tough match. We looked good in possession in the first half, but both teams were careful in defence and good chances were fairly hard to find. Sebastien Haller had a great chance to score on 65’, but his shot was parried (a poor miss to Haller’s standards), but on 82’ we finally broke through - substitute Jermoumi crossed from the right wing and Haller tucked it in to score a vital goal. It looked like we could just hold onto our lead, but in 86’ Aertssen was forced off with an injury when I had made all my substitutions and in the final minutes it was a true survival fight with our ten men against FC Utrecht’s pressure. They had some good moments before the final whistle - Ansgar Knauff had a good chance on 90’ and a minute later Tommy St. Jago hit the crossbar with an ambitious attempt from 20 metres, so it wasn’t too bright for us. Fortunately the final whistle came soon enough and the 1:0 result gave us a crucial win. The away game against Zenit St. Petersburg was actually held at Parken, in Denmark, so there wasn’t really a home advantage for Zenit and we were bold enough to start with a positive mentality. We had one great chance in the first half, but Naci Ünüvar failed to finish from an open position. Zenit looked more in the game after the break ,but in the final ten minutes we had a breakthrough when the youngster Peter Misidjan hit it fiercely into the top corner to score his first ever goal for Ajax. Mateja Milovanovic scored from a corner deep in injury time to make it 2:0 and that win set us up for a good start in the group. Our 2:0 win over Willem II was a fairly routine game - our opponents came to Johan Cruijff Arena with a rather defensive 4-1-4-1 DM formation and didn’t pose a threat to our goal through the ninety minutes. Sebastien Haller gave us the lead in 15’ and Neal Viereck headed in a corner in the second half to make it 2:0. We had some good chances in the game, but missed most of them - Amourricho van Axel Dongen hit the woodwork and Sebastien Haller missed the best chance of the game in 54’ when he was completely open in front of the goal and couldn’t get it on target. Youngster Peter Misidjan also blew his one-on-one opportunity late in the game, so I wasn’t happy at all with our finishing, but a 2:0 win looked solid enough not to complain too much about performance. The next game against sc Heerenveen was our easiest fixture in September, because Heerenveen virtually didn’t show up on the game. We took the lead after their own goal and Haller doubled it with a penalty late in the first half and in the second half we completely dominated the proceedings. Two more headers from Haller and another penalty made it 5:0 and Heerenveen made their first attempt to our goal only in injury time. The final score doesn’t flatter us at all, knowing that we had 3.87 xG and hit the woodwork four times as well, so it could have been even worse for Heerenveen. An easy win and a great performance. Sebastien Haller walked away with the match ball and 10.0 performance rating. Home game against Liverpool was a tricky one. We’ve stunned big teams at home in the Champions League if they’re too passive in away games, but I opted for a balanced mentality at the start. It was a fairly quiet 20-25 minutes, but then Liverpool took the lead with a good transition goal after Devyne Rensch lost the ball in midfield. We didn’t manage to create any chances until that point and I knew we had to change something - back to positive mentality and normal passing tempo and things started to improve. Davy Klaassen was tripped in the box in 54’ and we equalised from the spot. However, Salah curled in a free kick in 87’ to make it 1:2 and I doubted we had enough time to find another goal, but we did - Klaassen crossed it from right and Haller headed in from the far post to rescue a point. I was quite pleased with the final result, because Liverpool are well above us in quality of players and to get a point against them counts as success. In conclusion - September was a great month. We’re still holding our 100% start in Eredivisie and have played two good Champions League fixtures. Players and Tactics What shows from our September results is that we’ve been excellent defensively - no goals conceded in Eredivisie fixtures and we can be very proud with that. Defence has helped to win the games and it also gives confidence. On the other side of the pitch we’ve been helped by set pieces - we’ve scored three penalties and two goals from corners and that’s something that I’d like to keep going as well. We’ve also been patient in difficult games and managed to snatch the win in the final ten minutes and that’s very important - to keep believing and searching for that winner or equaliser. Some of the players have made a real impact in September. Sebastien Haller obviously with his goals - he’s got ten to his name now, but also Peter Misidjan who made his debut for the club and scored his first ever goal for Ajax in a very important moment against Zenit. Couple of players have been here long enough to reach their 100th match for the club - Amourricho van Axel Dongen and Olivier Aertssen reached that landmark in September. Player of the Month: Sebastien Haller - easy pick, the striker has scored eight goals in six games for us. Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. Zenit St. Petersburg - a well struck effort from the youngster that landed in the top corner Eredivisie Feyenoord made a draw with PSV Eindhoven in their last match and so we have a small gap now in the table. PEC Zwolle is surprisingly high in the standings, but their opponents have been mostly teams from the lower half of the table so far, so their momentum could disappear after facing bigger teams. FC Groningen have struggled to get it going - only one goal from six games and they’re in the relegation zone. Frans Adelaar could be easily the first manager to be sacked this season. Champions League Four points from the first two games against Zenit and Liverpool is quite a positive start and I’m optimistic about our chances in this group.

August 2026 Fixtures and Results Summer friendlies did not go as smoothly as we’ve used to - we had one defeat in July, made a 0:0 draw against Lille and beaten 0:1 by Arsenal in London (not a poor performance per se). That didn’t add confidence. Players looked out of form and teamwork wasn’t in sync, despite the fact that players know each other well and should be used to working as a unit. With that background we reached August and hosted Feyenoord in the Johan Cruijff Schaal final. We had the home advantage and it helped us a lot. Feyenoord started better and had momentum in the first five minutes and Keita Balde had an early chance for Feyenoord, but then Kenneth Taylor was fouled in the box and we were awarded a penalty that Sebastien Haller converted. Without showing much quality in attack, we were leading 1:0 and now Feyenoord needed to react, but then Amourricho van Axel Dongen scored with an excellent header to make it 2:0 and that was a bit too much. We did much better work in defence after the break and kept Feyenoord more or less quiet. It was not an exciting match for the spectators and it was clear that our game needed improvement, but at least it was a win and a clean sheet. Beating our rivals in the Johan Cruijff Schaal final gave us a lot of confidence and we needed that ahead of the league campaign. Our first opponents in Eredivisie were newly-promoted Eagles. Their stadium - De Adelaarshorst - was full of anticipation and a lovely August afternoon brought a full crowd to the game, but ninety minutes of football offered nothing but misery for them. We controlled the proceedings from start to finish. Antony scored two goals in the first ten minutes (his first goal was a well struck effort from 22 metres) and completed his hat-trick from the spot. Sebastien Haller found himself on the score sheet again and we also managed to hit the crossbar twice, while Eagles failed to get a single shot on target. That’s a poor start to their Eredivisie campaign and it’s an early sign that they might not be good enough to keep their place here for the next season. August had two derby games in our schedule and next we hosted PSV Eindhoven at home. PSV failed to reach the Champions League group stage through the play-offs and are probably disappointed because of that. They have a new manager in Alfred Schreuder who came from Vitesse and brought with him his favourite 5-3-2 WB formation, so it’s interesting to see how it will work out for them. Their first league game was a difficult 3:2 win over Fortuna Sittard, where PSV came back twice from behind, before eventually scoring the winner, so it has not been too smooth for them so far and after two wins and clean sheets we looked clearly more confident going into this game. We had one good chance in the first half - Antony saw his shot being parried, but Misehouy came and tucked it in from the rebound. PSV’s main threat seemed to be headers that they won too easily in our box and I couldn’t find a way to prevent them. In the second half Antony had to come off with a knock, but his replacement Bas van Lopik doubled our lead soon after coming on and Olivier Aertssen headed in from a free kick to make it 3:0. It was a win and we were already celebrating when Aertssen’s handball in the box gave PSV a late penalty. Mere consolation goal, but it didn’t ruin our party. A great win, although I was disappointed to hear from our medical staff that Antony will be out for around a month with a twisted ankle. The away game against ADO Den Haag was potentially tricky and it proved to be true early in the game. Aertssen’s missed interception gave Kelvin Ofori an early chance and in 6’ ADO took the lead. We struggled to contain them in defence - our centre-backs lost too many headers in midfield and ADO always had runners who were trying to exploit the space behind our lines. On the other hand, we looked sharp enough in attack and two goals from Amourricho van Axel Dongen (who was playing in Antony’s position on our right wing) gave us the lead at half-time. Sebastien Haller missed a real sitter in 51’ and it was a bad omen, considering how poor our defence was all afternoon. ADO had a couple of good chances indeed, with Rai Vloet hitting the post from a one-on-one situation and Kelvin Ofori missing a late chance in injury time. We escaped unscathed and returned with all three points, but the performance left much to desire in both defence and attack. So, in conclusion - excellent results in the beginning of the season and we have good wins over Feyenoord and PSV to show already, but we’re still searching for our good form and should find at least one or two extra gears in the coming weeks. Players The team looks a bit out of sync and we’re still trying to find a good rhythm. Departure of Bas van Lopik in August limited our options in attack and injuries have forced me to make some changes in the line-up. Transfer window rumours and contract stalemates doesn’t help either. We have some new players in the squad and I’m trying to introduce them into the team - Peter Misidjan and Mert Alegoz made their debuts for Ajax in the game against Go Ahead Eagles. Player of the Month: Sebastien Haller - didn’t shine exceptionally in any of the games, but was constantly good. Had two goals and two assists and was involved in a goal in every single game. Goal of the Month: Antony vs. Go Ahead Eagles - the Brazilian stunned Eagles with a well struck effort from 20 metres. Eredivisie After three match days we’re level with Feyenoord and three points ahead of PSV Eindhoven. Champions League We were drawn into group G with Liverpool, Zenit and Austria Wien. Liverpool is obviously strong, but we should be able to beat two other clubs in the group and I’m hopeful that we could progress into the knockout stages if we play those games well.

Squad Update 2026 Goalkeepers Jay Gorter is our undisputed number one, but Mert Alegoz had a great season on loan at Go Ahead Eagles - he helped them to promotion and returned to Ajax this Summer. I hope he’ll get around 10-15 games this season. This duo will have to do it for a while, because we haven’t got any real prospects coming up from the youth ranks at the moment. Defenders Big loss was Daley Blind’s departure and we will miss his experience and leadership. Tristan Gooijer also left the club, so we have some new faces in the defensive line. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi will feature as a right-back and provides substitutions for Devyne Rensch. Mateja Milovanovic needs to step up and fill the boots of Blind in our central defence. You might notice that we’re really thin in this department - we have some talented boys coming up from the youth team, but they’re not ready yet and we lack depth in the left-back department. However, most of the players are fairly versatile and can play different positions so I hope to manage. I’d say it’s not really a Champions League level defensive line, but could do OK in Eredivisie. Long term problem is the contract issue with Rensch - he will enter into his last season with us and is yet to sign a new deal. If we lose him, we’d be much worse. Midfielders Unchanged in the middle of the park. Davy Klaassen is the new captain of the team. Rico Speksnijder can play both DLPd and BBMs position and Bart Smits will bring youthful energy to our midfield. Julian Brandes also returned after a season on loan at ADO Den Haag - he’s not really good in the long term, but can provide cover for both DLPd and DC positions this season. Attacking Midfielders Here we have options, but some problems as well. We had two great right-backs, but Bas van Lopik left in August and Antony could not be an Ajax player for long. Fortunately we have plenty of wingers and Amourricho van Axel Dongen is two footed and able to play on both sides. Left wing and the AMC position is the most crowded with talent - we have Naci Ünüvar who is natural in both positions, Gabriel Misehouy in AMC and Peter Misidjan who is one of the best players for the future in this team. Enough bodies to rotate and provide minutes to everybody. Strikers Sebastien Haller is our best goalscorer and one of the team leaders, but he too enters the last year of his contract and he misses his homeland, so it’s unsure if he’s willing to stay longer. We have two young strikers in Dramane Guehi and Yoram Boerhout - Boerhout will stay on loan at AZ Alkmaar at the moment, but I hope that Guehi can make a step forward this season in Ajax.

Summer 2026 Players went on holiday, but it was the Summer of World Cup in 2026 and both Holland and Cote d'Ivoire were in the final tournament. Jay Gorter, Devyne Rensch and Bas van Lopik featured for Holland who reached the quarter final. Cote d’Ivoire couldn’t get through the group stage and Haller’s performances were rather poor on that level and when the tournament finished he wished to return to his homeland, so I allowed him another month until the end of July to charge his batteries in Africa. Staff The board has continued to increase the amount of staff, so we have three open positions for coaches and I used this chance to improve our training quality. Paul Robinson from Millwall joined our coaching staff to take charge of defending training. Transfer Window Daley Blind and Tristan Gooijer left the club in Summer, but a lot of players returned from loan. Some of them are expected to fill the first team roles in the next campaign and with friendlies approaching I have a lot of players to choose from. On the other hand, we still have a lot of youngsters who need more playing time and could find it on loan, so our loan manager will be busy sorting out short term deals for those players. To help him with this job, I asked the board for a new feeder club for this specific purpose - to send out players on loan. The decision fell to Almere City who have a decent training facilities in Keuken Kampioen Divisie, but a rather poor squad. Nikita Tamm and Can Tas joined Almere City for a season and both extended their contracts until 2030 in the process. Yoram Boerhout joined AZ Alkmaar for a season. We had a relatively quiet transfer window, but a few moves still happened in August. I usually try to earn as much as possible from transfers and I’m willing to sell my star players for around £50m or more and there were two on the shopping window this Summer. Devyne Rensch and Antony both attracted sufficient interest from big clubs, but in the end no official bids were made and when September arrived both remained in Ajax. Bas van Lopik, however, was snapped up from us - Borussia Mönchengladbach activated his minimum release fee clause and he joined the Bundesliga side for £40m. The fee seemed big enough when I extended his contract last time but I had forgotten him and his true market value was a bit higher now, so Borussia made a smart move and made me regret a little. Star players aside, I had to make space in the team for new talents, so it meant that some of the fringe/backup players who were already over 22 years of age needed to move forward. I sent Charlie Setford on loan to Sampdoria with a mandatory £1,5m future fee to make the move permanent and midfielder Kian Fitz-Jim joined Brest for £4m - a decent money for a player I had no room for and who was on the last year of his contract. All in all we made around £45m in transfer fees this Summer. Eredivisie News Summer news was mostly related to manager movements. Alfred Schreuder left Vitesse for PSV Eindhoven. Vitesse, in turn, re-hired John van den Brom as their new manager.

In retrospect we had a great season. We continued to dominate Eredivisie and had an excellent Champions League group stage, only to be knocked out by Arsenal in the first round after that. We won the KNVB Beker (one year ahead of schedule we agreed with the board in my contract) and almost everything went according to plan. Jong Ajax surprised everybody by winning the Keuken Kampioen Divisie title. They are labelled as favourites in most of the seasons, but rarely live up to that tag. This time our youngsters were impressive from August to May and won the title. Kudos to the manager John Heitinga for that success. Players We avoided major injuries. In fact, I was surprised how injury free the squad remained through this season. It has allowed us to rotate a lot and distribute playing time evenly, so a couple of younger players have developed extremely well. Gabriel Misehouy and Bas van Lopik have been labelled as wonderkids and they have really emerged through the ranks into the first team. My biggest disappointment of the season is losing Daley Blind this Summer. I was late to offer him a new contract and he will join Shakhtar to continue his career. His leadership will be missed in our dressing room. From an attacking side of the game, Sebastien Haller was our top scorer with 29 goals, although his form dropped in the second half of the season. Antony added 18 and gave 12 assists. Eredivisie Awards We collected plenty of rewards in the award ceremony. I was named Manager’s Manager of the Year once again. Kenneth Taylor was the runner-up in Golden Boot, but I’m still not sure how this award is selected, because Antony had the highest rating in the competition and by my understanding he should have won it.

May 2026 Fixtures and Results Two difficult games in May - against AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord. Both were away fixtures, but I was determined to prepare for the next season after our title win and so decided that Daley Blind and Tristan Gooijer should be out of the starting line-ups now to give first team game time to Milovanovic and Neal Viereck. AZ Alkmaar offered a firm resistance to us and they played a good first half in front of their home crowd, but Davy Klaassen scored a wonderful goal from 18 metres that went in off the bar and gave us the lead before the half-time break. We defended really well in the second half, while AZ started to take more risks and test different ways to find an equaliser, before our substitute Dramane Guehi took the ball past their centre-backs and scored with an excellent finish to make it 2:0 and secure all three points. AZ tried hard, but managed to create just one half-chance and I have to say that our defenders did a really good job to neutralise their attacks throughout the game. Bas van Lopik stood out once again with two assists and Antony continued to brood on the bench. We then travelled to Feyenoord to play what was mostly just a principal derby game between two rivals. I contemplated whether to start with a positive or balanced mentality and went for positive, although it has backfired sometimes in away games against bigger teams. This time we had a great start - van Axel Dongen set up Haller for a simple finish and that goal gave us the lead in the first half. The game itself was actually fairly even and both teams had two chances in the first half. Feyenoord fans were almost celebrating a goal on 40’ when Marcos Senesi’s header was floating towards the goal, but Gorter leaped high and tipped it over the bar. In the second half we gained momentum again and van Lopik found van Axel Dongen on the goal line with a cross and so it was 2:0. It was the second time we played the pants off their defence and scored an easy goal, but despite that Feyenoord came back to the game - Moses Simon scored the first goal on 57’ and then we conceded a late corner on 88’ after Klaassen’s mistake in front of our goal. Disappointing not to get a win after leading 2:0, but from the neutral perspective it looked like a fair result. We had just five shots in the game (four of them went on target), but created good chances and finished them well. The last game of the season was held at Johan Cruijff Arena and we concluded our successful campaign with an emphatic 5:0 win over Fortuna Sittard. Bas van Lopik opened the scoring and continued to dish out assists. He finished the match with a superb 10.0 rating and we could enjoy most of the game without pressure. Fans definitely had a great day. Players We avoided injuries and suspension at the end of the season. Amourricho van Axel Dongen returned for the last two games and did well against Feyenoord, so we head to Summer with a clean bill of health. There are tensions over contracts of Antony and Devyne Rensch. Both enter the last season of their current deals. With Bas van Lopik in such a good form it is clear that Antony does not have an upper hand in those contract negotiations and I’m not willing to pay £150k-£180k per week that both players expect, so it’s probable that we’ll see some moves in the Summer transfer window. Player of the Month: Bas van Lopik - he continued his fine form in May and produced one goal and four (!) assists in those three games Goal of the Month: Davy Klaassen vs. AZ Alkmaar - well struck effort from 18 metres that went in off the bar Eredivisie In the end we collected 84 points - a fair amount to secure the title. Both Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven finished well behind us. FC Utrecht was one of the biggest disappointments this season - they were expected to finish fourth, but ended up in the middle of the table. NAC Breda got eventually relegated and FC Emmen retained their place in Eredivisie after the play-offs.

April 2026 Fixtures and Results We started April with a trip to De Grolsch Veste. It was a tricky match for us, because in addition to all the injuries (Devyne Rensch, Prince Aning, David Kalokoh) Kenneth Taylor was suspended for the game and in the defensive department I didn’t have too many players to choose from. We managed to keep the ball well and maintain possession in the first half, without being too sharp in attack, but Bas van Lopik went down in the box on 38’ and we were awarded a pretty soft penalty that VAR nevertheless confirmed. It helped us to half-time with a 1:0 lead despite our struggles in attack. FC Twente improved after the restart and Vaclav Cerny headed in on 55’ to make it 1:1. They had more of the momentum for the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, but Klaassen’s through ball found Bas van Lopik on the run and it was 2:1 soon and we didn’t give this lead away. Good result for our weakened squad - I have no reason to be too critical with players. The home game against Willem II was much easier. Daley Blind headed in from a free kick in the first minute of the game and we looked well in control after that. Kenneth Taylor returned to the line-up after his suspension and he was clearly the best player on the pitch. He gave seven key passes and set up two goals in the game. Gabriel Misehouy was another star of the night with his two goals. Willem II fielded a 4-1-4-1 DM formation and was happy to sit back in defence for the whole game and they never really put up the fight, so it was an easier game than anticipated. Amourricho van Axel Dongen came off on 64’ with an injury - he sprained his ankle and it looks like he’ll be out for at least 3-4 weeks, so he won’t be back in action until the very last games of the season. That’s a shame, because he’ll miss the cup final because of this injury. The cup final was held at De Kuip this season - a neutral ground for both teams. The first half started quietly, although we controlled a little more of the possession. Antony had the first big chance in the game on 37’, but his attempt was parried by the PSV goalkeeper and teams went in with 0:0 on the scoreboard. The second half was slightly better - Antony scored after a smart cross from Tristan Gooijer (who was really active in attack on our right wing), but missed his third chance of the game and I took him off after that. PSV started to take more risks and had a couple of half-chances in the last ten minutes, but then Naci Ünüvar set up substitute Bas van Lopik for the second goal and that wrapped things up for us - the second consecutive cup win for us and with that I fulfilled the first promise of our new contract period. Really good display against a strong PSV team - we had struggled against big teams before Christmas, but in the second half of the season we’ve beaten both PSV and Feyenoord convincingly in various games. The last game of the month was against FC Utrecht. We created two good chances in the first half - Aning found van Lopik with a good cross into the six yard box and then van Lopik delivered a similar ball to Naci Ünüvar. Two goals from a close range and soon later David Kalokoh added the third goal, so frustration started to show in the body language of FC Utrecht players and Django Warmerdam was sent off for a late tackle before the first half was over and that made things easy for us. We took a convincing 3:0 win and secured our eight consecutive league title, because Feyenoord lost 3:4 to Heracles at the same time. Players We still had some minor injury problems in April, so it’s been good to see players stepping up and taking a chance to impress. Davy Klaassen has been consistently good, Bas van Lopik just fantastic through the month, Gabriel Misehouy and David Kalokoh showing that we have some promising young stars in the team. At the same time Sebastien Haller has failed to score for a while now and his form is in decline - time to pick himself up if he wants to finish with 30 goals in a season. Haller has scored 28 at the moment, Antony follows with 18 goals and 12 assists and Gabriel Misehouy reached his 10th goal this month. Player of the Month: Bas van Lopik - he’s been fantastic, scoring in almost every game in April and showing that perhaps we don’t desperately need Antony to sign a new contract Goal of the Month: Gabriel Misehouy vs. Willem II Tilburg Contracts We are now starting to build for the future and taking a more serious look at players whose contracts will run out in 2027. Davy Klaassen signed a one-year extension with a pay cut (£38,000 p/w) - he has played 40 games this season, his work rate has been crucial in midfield and we’ll need his experience after Blind leaves the club. Gabriel Misehouy is labelled a wonderkid now and he signed a new deal until 2031 (£23,000 p/w) - the AMC position looks crowded enough, but I can’t allow such talents to get away for free. Eredivisie No real surprises at the top of the table - all the strong teams are there. Perhaps FC Utrecht has been the biggest disappointment - they were predicted to finish 4th/5th in the pre-season. Excelsior is relegated and NAC Breda seems to be doomed as well.