‘Yearing for victory’ • Stengs back at Feyenoord, Timber is missing

We now close this football blog. We will report tomorrow in the afternoon with a new blog, about five matches in the Premier League.

Vitesse is working on three possible buyers

Another message about Vitesse. According to director Edwin Reijntjes, the troubled Arnhem club is in discussions with three possible buyers. “We are actually taking steps in the right direction. A handful of parties have reported to us in recent weeks. We are now taking three of them very seriously.”

“Although I absolutely cannot say too much about this, also because the parties require this of us, I would like to say that there is also a Dutch party involved. We will keep the lines of communication short with the parties and hope to be able to contact one of the candidates soon. exclusively. The sooner we can provide clarity, the better. Our internal deadline for this is December 15. Of course, I realize that this will have to be a sound choice.”

You can read more about the current situation at Vitesse below:

Vitesse in conversation with Twente about Jonathans

Vitesse reports on its own site that they are in discussions about a winter transfer of attacker Miliano Jonathans. The 20-year-old right winger’s contract expires in the summer, so Vitesse wants to sell him before then.

Jonathans makes a big impression at Vitesse, where he scored eight times in thirteen games in the first division.

Spartan Kayky is out for a long time

The football year could already be over for Kayky, Sparta reports on the club website. The Manchester City loanee was injured during a match against FC Groningen.

The recently recruited left back Patrick van Aanholt makes his debut in the match selection.

Martens: ‘Didn’t do well enough in the Premier League’

AZ is having a really tough time in the competition. The last time a Premier League match was won was on September 20 against PEC. After that, AZ only managed a meager point in six matches. Fenerbahçe won well in the Europa League.

Trainer Maarten Martens realizes that we need to win again quickly. “We didn’t do well enough in the Premier League,” the Belgian said in a press conference. “As a group, we are certainly longing for those three points. The focus is therefore now fully on the away match against Sparta next Sunday. We have to get behind the opponent’s last line more often. We were always very dangerous in that.”

Many players at AZ were injured. Martens also remains courageous with its quite stripped-down selection. “You are busy looking ahead. There is a busy period coming up, with many matches on three fronts, up to Christmas. We have looked for things that need to be improved. That was the focus.”

“We have to show more stability in crucial phases. That’s why you look for a good balance in the group. A lot of boys are knocking on the door and that’s good. They have to keep it up for a longer period first.”

Record number of members at KNVB

The KNVB has registered a record number of members in the 2023/2024 season. There were 1,240,437 Dutch people affiliated with a club: 1,064,154 men and 176,283 women.

Compared to the previous season, the membership base has grown by 2.3%.

Amorim starts at United: ‘I’m the right man at the right time’

Rúben Amorim will start his tough job as head coach of Manchester United. Manchester United had a poor start to the season under Erik ten Hag and is in the middle of the Premier League.

Amorim, who had many successes at Sporting CP, is still confident. “Call me naive, but I really believe that I am the right man at the right time. Maybe I’m wrong, but even then the world keeps turning.”

Amorims United will play away against Ipswich Town on Sunday.

Priske over injury Timber

Quinten Timber was injured with the Dutch national team. Is Priske disappointed that the midfielder was not sent back to Feyenoord to recover? “For that decision you have to go to Ronald Koeman. He received good treatment there, the same as we had given.”

“Of course, if in doubt, I would prefer our boys to stay here. But it is complicated. Ultimately, as a club we do have a common interest, your player does not.” killen.”

Stengs back at Feyenoord, Timber and Bijlow absent

Feyenoord coach Brian Priske will not have Justin Bijlow and Quinten Timber available against Heerenveen. Bijlow was already absent due to an injury before the international break, Timber was injured again with the Dutch national team.

The good news is that Calvin Stengs returns to the match selection. This also applies to Julián Carranza and Antoni Milambo.

About Stengs, Priske said: “We know how far we can go with him. But we don’t want to push him too far. Sometimes we have to and the players know that, but we will take it easy. At least he can make minutes. “

Guardiola also says he will stay if City is relegated

Pep Guardiola extended his contract with Manchester City for two years yesterday. His club is under fire and in a legal battle for possible violations of Financial Fair Play rules.

In the worst-case scenario, City could be kicked out of the Premier League. Then the club has to climb back up on its own. Guardiola addressed that possibility at a press conference. “Then I’ll still be here. Then we’ll just come back the following year. No matter how far they put us back, we’ll come back anyway.”

Liverpool coach Arne Slot previously responded to his colleague’s contract news. “That’s good news for the Premier League,” he said.

Due to the injury of Luuk de Jong, Ricardo Pepi gets the chance to start again for the Eindhoven team against his old club FC Groningen. During the international match with the United States, he expressed his frustration about the reserve role he had at PSV.

“To be honest, it’s hard to stay patient for a year and a half and only play ten or fifteen minutes every weekend.”

Bosz said about this today: “What he said about the striker position at PSV is not news to me. Pepi is a top striker and he is right when he says that he is ready to be the striker of PSV. However, I have two top strikers and at the moment Luuk de Jong is my number 1.”

Luuk de Jong misses the match against Groningen, Pepi gets a chance

Tomorrow’s match against FC Groningen comes too early for Luuk de Jong. The PSV striker is still struggling with a muscle injury.

De Jong was hit in the Champions League match against Girona and suffered some muscle problems. “But he is not seriously injured,” trainer Peter Bosz said at today’s press conference.

Semi-final against Croatia or France

If the Netherlands wins against Spain, it will play against the winner of the match between Croatia and France.

The other three quarter-finals are:

The Netherlands will face Spain on March 23.

So, a very tough draw for the Netherlands. European champion Spain is the opponent in the quarter-finals.

Value finals will be played in June is not yet known. The previous edition was held in the Netherlands.

The Dutch team then lost in the semi-finals against Italy. The battle for third place was lost against Croatia.

In the final in Enschede, Spain beat Italy 2-1.

The two possible opponents for a semi-final will also be announced soon. The quarter-finals are in March, the semi-finals and the final in June.

Giorgio Marchetti is busy with the balls: the draw for the quarter-finals of the Nations League has begun. We will keep track of it here, but also have a live stream. The three possible opponents of the Dutch are France, Spain and Portugal.

The other divisions will come first.

Round of rags: Bijlow misses duel with Heerenveen

It will be busy weeks for the Premier League teams that are also active in Europe. What is the fitness status at PSV, Ajax, Feyenoord, FC Twente and AZ?

PSV: Peter Bosz’s selection seems to have emerged from the international break unscathed. However, PSV is still missing a number of strong players against FC Groningen: Jerdy Schouten, Joey Veerman and Sergiño Dest are still out. Armando Obispo and Adamo Nagalo are also still injured.

Ajax: It is not certain whether Ajax will have Brian Brobbey available this Sunday against PEC Zwolle. The striker dropped out with minor complaints against Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Dutch team. Francesco Farioli will also hope that Steven Berghuis has strengthened and that Bertrand Traoré, who was not fit from the match against Twente, is fresh again. Mika Godts is still injured anyway.

Feyenoord: Justin Bijlow also misses the match against Heerenveen. The question remains whether Quinten Timber will make it to the match. Calvin Stengs, Julián Carranza and Antoni Milambo return to the match selection.

FC Twente: Twente is perhaps in the best position. Younes Taha has been injured for even longer and Mees Hilgers is not yet a certainty – he missed the Indonesia international matches – but everyone else is fit. Twente will play against Fortuna Sittard this weekend.

THE: Many question marks at AZ. Goalkeeper Rome Jayden Owusu-Oduro has been injured for a while and the question is whether he will make it to the match against Sparta. Also not (completely) fit were Jordy Clasie, Kristijan Belic, Bruno Martins Indi, Lequincio Zeefuik, Ernest Poku, Ibrahim Sadiq and Ruben van Bommel.

PSG chairman announces departure from Parc des Princes

On French radio, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi announced the departure of his club from the Parc des Princes stadium. “I really love the stadium. If I listen to my heart, we will not leave. But everyone in Europe has stadiums with 80,000 to 90,000 seats. We need that too, otherwise we are dead.”

PSG would like to move in about three years.