Niche Cache. Touch wood some mins soon. Fluent Dutch speaker these days.
Rojas with his Spanish, Bell the Norwegian, Singh the Deutsch, Tuiloma the Francophone, Libby some Italian, Stamenic would have improved his Serbian at Red Star, McCowatt/Just/Wilkins likely all some useful Danish, Waine his posh English, Champness his street rap, Old with a bonjour & a merci. The AWs a team of linguists https://youtu.be/7GfRAiK-Dkg
PEC Zwolle are in the relegation playoff spot, and we’re still yet to see Ryan Thomas even though he’s been on the bench for all six matches. He did get a half of footy in a closed-door friendly recently so he’s getting close.
He did an interview (in Dutch) with ESPN NL recently in which he explained that a lot of his issues have been because his kneecap was naturally higher on the joint than it should have been and that his latest surgery was to break off a bit of it and reattach the bone lower down, which he reckons has made a massive difference in how he moves on the pitch but which also required a long period of rehabilitation to build up the muscles around that knee again.
Hopefully this is good news. The dude’s had enough injuries to last a whole career and he’s not even 30 yet.
1-1 when he came on, and finished that way. Got a yellow, 4 mins after coming on, a sign perhaps not gun shy in his long awaited return Version unnumbered.
Robin van Persie the Heerenveen gaffer.
Post FIFA window Kiwi Eredivisie derby. Zwolle hosting Breda. Though likely limited mins from either AW midfielder.
Ryan Thomas: “It feels good, it's been a long time. It feels good to be back as a footballer and back on the field. I’ve had a lot of time to think and had many moments when I considered quitting football, but I like to be on the field and kicking a ball around. So I chose to continue and that was the right choice in the end. I'm just as happy now as when I came here when I was eighteen.
How did I convince PEC Zwolle to continue with me longer? I decided with the club that I would be the first person out at the field to support the boys and that my own time would come again naturally. I still have the excitement of playing games despite all those bad moments. I love this club and want to do everything to help this club. They have also helped me enormously in recent years, so I am very happy.”
Niche Cache. Fingers crossed he can have a few good seasons to finish his career and even get to that 2026 WC
Ryan Thomas: “When I left PSV, everyone said that I can easily play for the club with my qualities, but there were just too many doubts about my body. I had a very hard time with that. I understand it very well from PSV, you cannot give a contract to a player when you don’t know if he can still help you, but mentally that is something you have to get over. You know you can do so much more but your body doesn't work. It really affected me a lot.
As an athlete you just want to get the most out of yourself and if that doesn't work through your body, and not so much because of your qualities, every day is a mental challenge. I don't know if I can ever turn off the anger or sadness about my body: you just have to try to learn to live with it. I have to say that I’m getting better and better at that. I can also put things into perspective a lot more than before. My family is the most important thing, football's turn comes later.”
To be a chance of involvement with 2026 WC, I reckon he'd have to come in no later than the September window next year. By then he wouldn't have played for the AWs for nearly 6 years (Nov 2019), and so much has changed he'd need to be coming in by then to be adding any real value in 2026.
Thomas is class, but still takes time to get to know your team mates, the culture, the setup etc.
I wonder if he'd take a 12 month contract from us or AFC in the leadup to the world cup. Obviously he's incredibly settled in the Netherlands so I hardly think he'd be back long term, but the A-League schedule is pretty forgiving and with his skillset he would be a monster in the league if his body holds up. Mind you, theres a genuine argument that football in the low countries is less physical than the A-League, so who knows
Seems Eredivisie games have large benches, so I'm guessing teams have big squads with room to rotate players in need. But still Thomas is either out of squads altogether or watching on from the pine.
However the 2026 WC will start looming for him as a massive carrot. He'll be 32 by then (has a birthday in 2 days), so '26 seems his last shot at going to the big danace. If playing a season in NZ under Bazeley's nose looks like his best shot at getting back into the AWs, then why not. It's not happening in Holland at the moment. At this rate Zwolle are unlikely to re-sign him in 2025.