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[FM18] War! Huh! Waalwijk It Good For? Absolutely Nothing!

Deisler26

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Deisler26

Deisler26

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Awards & News

Maarten Groenveld won the Eredivisie Top Goalscorer award.

Thierry Ambrose won the Eredivisie Golden Boot for best player for the second year in a row and the fourth year in a row that an RKC player has won it. He also broke the club record for MOTM performances

Erwin Schomaker placed second in the Eredivisie Young Player of the Year award voting

I finished second in the Manager's Manager of the Year voting.

Peter Leeuwenburgh broke the club record for clean sheets.

We overachieved in the Champions League

We also dominated the Eredivisie stats.

Commercial Summary looks good again.

 

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Deisler26

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4 minutes ago, SpikeHughes said:

Never mind always next season but recruiting should begin in earnest, big shoe’s to fill whoever takes over Groenveld if he does end up leaving. You could blood Bjorn Wels but he’s only 15 y.o. How much are you expecting for Groenveld? I know that my valuation and the computers valuation do differ a lot of the time.

He's going nowhere for less than £25m.

*IF* it comes to it, Bambang Halim will move into his spot, with Sander Bos becoming the backup.

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Deisler26

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200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC Waalwijk 

Academy Watch: Class of 2020

In this section, we'll look at my historical youth intakes. At the end of every season, I'll go back and look at an intake from my time here at RKC and see if the key prospects worked out? Or if they flamed out, never to be seen again.

This time, we've been in the job a couple of years, time to get serious. It's the Class of 2020.

Screen Shot 2017-11-27 at 12.51.11

This was the worst of the three intakes so far. I said at the time I wasn't too enamoured of it. We'll concentrate on the 3* prospects and up, unless there are any significant deviations. We had Jeffrey Clement, Nilton Santos, Paco Cruzado and Edgar Pedro as our 3* and up.

Jeffrey Clement

Then: 15 years old, RKC Waalwijk

Now: 21 years old, Feyenoord Rotterdam

Jeffrey was the top prospect in this year's intake. But he made one sub appearance in the Jupiler League for us, before being sold to Feyenoord Rotterdam for £350k + 50& sell on. In 5 seasons, however, he has not made a single appearance for the first team. His only outings came in a loan spell with SBV Excelsior, where he appeared 4 times for a 6.43 rating.

 

Nilton Santos

Then: 15 years old, RKC Waalwijk

Now: 21 years old, PSV Eindhoven

Nilton was a talented winger, but in a team that didn't use wingers, his stats didn't really lend themselves to any other role. He also only made one Jupiler League appearance for us before being sold for £130k + 50% in the summer of 2020 to PSV Eindhoven. From there, he was moved into Jong PSV Eindhoven. Since then, he's made 72 appearances for them, scoring 14 goals and making 10 assists over the 5 years for an average rating of 6.77

 

Paco Cruzado

Then: 16 years old, RKC Waalwijk

Now: 21 years old, RKC Waalwijk

The Spanish born academy graduate Paco Cruzado is still plugging away at the club. In 5 seasons at the club, he has amassed 5 appearances for the first team, including a UEFA Champions League start, averaging a 7.11 rating in this time. He's also spent time on loan at HHC Hardenberg in the 2021/22 season making 9 appearances and scoring 1 goal for an average 6.87 rating. Most recently, he spent time on loan last season at Helmond Sport (3 games, 1 assist, 7.00 rating) and v.v Katwijk (14 games, 2 goals, 6.83 rating).

 

Edgar Pedro

Then: 16 years old, RKC Waalwijk

Now: 21 years old, Feyenoord Rotterdam

Edgar suffered the same fate as Nilton Santos, a winger coming through into a system which had no need for wingers. He stayed at RKC for two seasons, moving onto Feyenoord Rotterdam in the summer of 2021 for £1m + 50% sell on. To date, he has appeared 10 times for the first team, racking up 12 assists in one glorious KNVB Beker run for an average rating of 7.74. He spent last season on loan at SBV Excelsior, where he made 12 appearances, scoring 1 goal for a 6.64 rating.

Edgar is also an Angolan international player, making his debut in June of this year against Reunion and going on to make three appearances for the national team, averaging a 6.43 rating

 

We also, as ever, had a diamond in the rough. Say hello to Dehninio Tempo

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Deisler26

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200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC WAALWIJK

DEBUT WATCH 

09.08.25, vs AZ Alkmaar (l 4-6) 

Players making their debut: 1

5a6f3f2630ac1_ScreenShot2018-01-29at15_30_04.thumb.png.f8c52607c38d0d5a33f3a44db4c6d522.png

21 year old academy graduate Vincent Schouten made his long-awaited debut for the club against AZ Alkmaar. He'd come into the club, then sold, then bought back last season. He played all 90 minutes, making 23 successful passes, four tackles and creating one assist. He also scored a good hat-trick on four shots to limit the damage on an awful team performance. He topped it off by running 12km to earn himself a 9.5 rating.

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RKC Waalwijk 

 AUGUST 2025 TRANSFER WINDOW

We flattered to deceive again in the league. Our Faalhaas reputation coming to the fore, but we needed to fight back. To facilitate this, we were given a £54m transfer budget with a £525k wage budget. We were also given a brief to make the UEFA Champions Best Placed Playoff, finish in the top half of the Eredivisie & make the KNVB Beker Quarter Final. Also we'll have both training and youth training upgrades opening in the autumn.

Results

We kicked off the Eredivisie this year away to last season's champions AZ Alkmaar. And it took 18 seconds to get a rude awakening as they scored early and then proceeded to go 1-5 up on the way to a 4-6 victory. The only saving grace was a hat-trick for debutant Vincent Schouten on his return to the club. We got back on track, thanks to a 3-0 win against Heracles Almelo. Both Sander Bos and Youri van Dijk got their first league goals for the club in this one.

Next up was FC Utrecht and Youri van Dijk scored again for the second game in a row, along with 16 year old Björn Wels' first league goal on his first league start. However, it took a 94th minute own-goal to give us all three points as we defeated them 3-2. Our final game in January was against PSV Eindhoven and it was a special one as we played with an entirely academy grown XI.

Our lineup was: (Intake year in brackets)

GK Jayden Visser (2022)                       

DR Marcel van der Mejis (2023)

DC Dirk Stevens (2021)

DC Willem Molenaar (2018)            

DL Dehninio Tempo (2020)

MC Pepjin Brok (2021)

MC Emiel de Jong (2022)

MC Youri van Dijk (2023)

ST Randal Davids (2024)

ST Sander Bos (2024)

ST Björn Wels (2024)

And they fought to a very credible 1-1 draw.

Our failure in the league meant that we had to qualify again for the UEFA Champions League. We faced FC Spartak Moscow in the Best Placed Third Qualifying Round and drew 2-2 in Moscow, thanks to conceding a 94 min equaliser, but recovered to thump them 3-0 at home. We then faced RSC Anderlecht in the Best Placed Playoff. A good 3-0 win at home meant that we could cruise the second leg and a hat-trick by Maarten Groenveld gave us a 4-2 win, 7-2 on aggregate and passage into the Group Stages.

- Results - Table - Euro Results -

 

Transfers

We signed no-one. Although I did have fun unsettling Robert Drost

Sales-wise, it was a very bad transfer window. We seemed to have caught the attention of bigger clubs in Europe and a few players had their heads turned. Most serious of all was Maarten Groenveld. His head had been turned by Arsenal and wanted to leave. I swore he wouldn't leave for less than £25m and he took exception to that. Luckily, Thierry Ambrose talked him round and we had no more issues for the rest of the window.

First three out the door were what I deemed expendable. First out was Ugandan midfielder Musa Bagala. He was sold to Real Betis Balompié in Spain for £2.5m + 50% sell on. Then went crowd favourite Chuma. He was still performing well, but with the young Dutch talent coming in behind him, his Spanish nationality was against him. Plus he'd been making noises about more game time, so when S.D Eibar came in with a £4m + 50% sell on bid, I let him go. Finally, I let Serbian starlet Mladan Jovic go to FC Internazionale for £5.25m + 50% sell on. 

Then came the heavy hits. One after the other. First off, midfielder Bert Willems was subject to a £3.5m + 50% sell on bid from Le Havre AC. Willems was heir-apparent to the AP role populated by Ebecilio, but after a season on loan at Jupiler League-winning Helmond Sport, he hadn't developed as much as Pepjin Brok had, plus there was Steven Theuniessen waiting in the wings. So I sold him.

Next, VfB Stuttgart, perhaps in revenge for me unsettling Drost, came in with a massive £17.75m + 50% bid for Ryan van Hovren. I didn't have anyone really to fit into that position as a starter (Theunissen was on loan and Willems has just been sold), but realistically, breaking my transfer record for a fee received should be accepted, so I did reluctantly. Then came the absolute kick in the nards. Young striker Sander Bos was approached by SSC Napoli for a pittance. I told them where to go, but he requested a meeting saying he wanted to go. I tried to keep him, but he got angry and when I suggested a £4.5m release figure, he agreed. Napoli then came back with £5m + 50% sell on (after I negotiated, duh) and I had to let go, despite not actually having a decent youth cover at ST.

This would have been worse if Groenveld had gone, as Bambang Halim would have moved up into the first XI striking role and Bos would have become the backup. 

- Transfers -

 

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Deisler26

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200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC WAALWIJK

DEBUT WATCH 

30.09.25, vs Sevilla (l 1-2) 

Players making their debut: 1

5a7182d9cdd18_ScreenShot2018-01-31at03_00_35.thumb.png.3217092df75f456b433f99b584204e60.png

19 year old Jordy, a product of the 2023 academy intake, came on in the 72nd minute, due to Maarten Groenveld's poor performance (6.1!) In his 20 minute cameo, he attempted three passes, two of which were successful and ran 2km.

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SpikeHughes

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6 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC WAALWIJK

DEBUT WATCH 

30.09.25, vs Sevilla (l 1-2) 

Players making their debut: 1

5a7182d9cdd18_ScreenShot2018-01-31at03_00_35.thumb.png.3217092df75f456b433f99b584204e60.png

19 year old Jordy, a product of the 2023 academy intake, came on in the 72nd minute, due to Maarten Groenveld's poor performance (6.1!) In his 20 minute cameo, he attempted three passes, two of which were successful and ran 2km.

Groenveld didn’t perform..,..heads turned by the arsenal interest. 

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ManUtd1

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5 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

2025/26 KNVB Beker First Round

25 Sept 2025

2000hrs, Mandemakers Stadion, Waalwijk

RKC Waalwijk 3 - 1 Go Ahead Eagles

(Forgot to screen cap again)

(Forgot to comment again.)

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Not lucky with the draw :(  Are you feeling that your team's performance are getting closer to the top level teams? I always found the Champions League as a Dutch team really hard. When you finally have players which are at the right level they want to leave to bigger teams. 

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Deisler26

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On 02/02/2018 at 09:44, Cross said:

Not lucky with the draw :(  Are you feeling that your team's performance are getting closer to the top level teams? I always found the Champions League as a Dutch team really hard. When you finally have players which are at the right level they want to leave to bigger teams. 

No, I don't feel that. With my current side, I think we're looking at First Knockout Round at best.

This season was the first one where I suffered from my players being snaffled.

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2025/26 UEFA Champions League Group G, Matchday 6

10 Dec 2025

2000hrs, Mandemakers Stadion, Waalwijk

RKC Waalwijk 2 - 1 Sevilla

5a7afee2ca9c3_ScreenShot2018-02-07at13_26_01.thumb.png.ea6481cffb744a82c51e06803cfd105f.png

Last game, backups again and we won. If only we could have got a point at Sevilla, we'd be in the Europa League rn...

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2025/26 KNVB Beker Quarter Final

29 Jan 2026

2045hrs, De Kuip, Rotterdam

Feyenoord Rotterdam 1 - 3 RKC Waalwijk

5a7c14b2276d6_ScreenShot2018-02-08at09_10_46.thumb.png.45c187263d1208ad54157cf23a546d70.png

We were awful in the first half but, after a kick up the arse, we came back with a strong second half. Thierry Ambrose scored his 150th goal for the club.

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RKC Waalwijk 

 JANUARY 2026 HALF-SEASON REVIEW

We kicked off the post-transfer window September in the Eredivisie with a 1-0 win over NEC Nijmegen. This gave us a platform in which we only dropped 7 points in the 5 months and 17 games between windows. Our dropped points first came in an away game against KNVB Beker holders ADO Den Haag, where a late goal meant we could only draw 1-1. Then, once again, a penalty mid-way through the second half saw us draw 1-1 away against FC Groningen. Finally, an abject performance away at PSV Eindhoven meant that despite pulling two goals back, we lost 2-3. 

In the KNVB Beker, we faced Jupiler League opposition in Go Ahead Eagles and we sent them back to Deventer with their tail between their legs as we won 4-1. We again faced a Jupiler League in the Second Round in the shape of MVV Maastricht and two goals in the first 6 minutes of the match killed off the game as we romped home, 3-1. We surpassed last year's dismal effort by squeaking past VVV Venlo 1-0 in the Third Round, before leaving it until the second half to dispose of Feyenoord Rotterdam in the Quarter Final as we scored three unanswered goals to win 3-1.

In our third foray into the UEFA Champions League, we were placed in Group G with AS Monaco FC, Manchester City and Sevilla. And we hit the same roadblocks as season 1. Whilst the defeats weren't as bad, we only came away with four points, thanks to a win at home to Sevilla and a draw away at Monaco in the last two games.

- Table - UCL Table -

Results

- Eredivisie

- KNVB Beker

- UEFA Champions League

 

Transfers

No-one in (shock horror!). But we were the victims of an almighty cock-up. We'd arranged a Bosman transfer of ex-youth defender Robert Drost from VfB Stuttgart. I'd spent the best part of a year unsettling him and we managed to snare him before Stuttgart could offer him a new contract. With this in mind, I was looking at transfer partners for defender Perr Schuurs. OGC Nice answered the call and for the sum of £5m plus striker Tonnie Schouw, himself an ex-RKC youth player, we had a deal. But on deadline day, Schouw backed out of the deal, leaving it to collapse. This then necessitated the emergency recall of Bambang Halim, who had been sent out on loan to feeder club Roda JC Kerkrade for the reason that Schouw would have taken his place. Luckily we had time left in the transfer window to do this.

Leaving the club were young winger Jan van Grinsven, who signed for S.S Lazio in a £120k deal. Also leaving (again) was midfield battler Mick Lötters. We had something of a logjam in the middle of the park now, with Lötters and Schomaker vying for the same spot, with Youri van Dijk the clear heir-in-waiting and Emile De Jong as the young pretender. So a good bid of £11.5m + 50% from Bayer 04 Leverkusen, combined with the fact that Lötters was 25, three years older than Schomaker, made my decision for me and he was sold.

Finally in this window, stalwart goalie Peter Leeuwenburgh came to me and said he needed a new challenge. As Jayden Visser was only going to relegate him to a backup role next season, I agreed for him to go and a £4.5m bid from Seattle Sounders FC was perfect for both of us.

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2025/26 KNVB Beker Semi Final

4 Mar 2026

2045hrs, Mandemakers Stadion, Waalwijk

RKC Waalwijk 3 - 1 AZ Alkmaar

5a7cbff1d0590_ScreenShot2018-02-08at21_19_54.thumb.png.c022a237cfe069a7bd1143e8993710c8.png

Our first cup win beckons. Yassin Fortune scored his 20th goal of the season and Maarten Groenveld scored his 200th goal for the club

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200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC Waalwijk 

2026 YOUTH INTAKE

 

5a7cd75578c2d_ScreenShot2018-02-08at23_02_11.thumb.png.b296922c5c9f6fed8a1dc7698b57d697.png

FULL INTAKE OVERVIEW

I know it's kinda entitled to say, but this is a bang average intake. A lot of 3* potentials, but nothing outstanding. I'm still waiting for that wonderkid to come through...

Key Prospects

  1. Muhammad Waluyo DR
  2. Said El Idrissi MC
  3. Winand Mashart ST
  4. René Mulder MC
  5. Patrik Marijnissen GK
  6. Arthur Maakay DC
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Deisler26

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200px-RKC_Waalwijk_logo.jpg

RKC WAALWIJK

DEBUT WATCH 

10.04.26, vs Helmond Sport (w 2-0) 

Players making their debut: 1

5a7d9be119d31_ScreenShot2018-02-09at12_58_26.thumb.png.9d1bca33d3dc4e8ae55ca7412030b071.png

15 year old Muhammad Waluyo, a graduate of our most recent academy intake, was pressed into action, due to the suspension of both my first choice and backup right-backs. He played 90 mins on his debut, making four tackles and winning them all and also making 39 successful passes with one dribble. He also ran a lung-busting 15.7km to achieve a match rating of 7.8.

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Deisler26

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20 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Nicely done in the league, man. Europe is the big challenge now, eh?

Talk about a solid debut for young Waluyo! I assume your coaches think he has a fair amount of room for growth in terms of PA?

Yes, hopefully I can get through the groups this time.

Waluyo is rated at 3* with one black.

Hopefully, that will translate as being on the same level of de Koning and van der Mejis.

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