It is incredibly rare for a football manager to use an official matchday programme to publicly mourn the loss of a player to the very team he is about to face. Yet, on page 6 of the December 2013 edition, ADO Den Haag manager Maurice Steijn does exactly that, providing a fascinatingly honest assessment of his team’s struggles and FC Groningen‘s transfer market brilliance.

Steijn, who was noted earlier in the season as the youngest manager in the Eredivisie, admits his team is having a tough year, sitting low in the standings. When analyzing his opponents at the Euroborg, he doesn’t just offer generic praise; he points directly to Groningen’s summer recruitment. “They have strengthened themselves excellently this summer with, among others, Eric Botteghin and Tjaronn Chery,” Steijn writes. Then comes the emotional gut-punch: “Personally, I thought it was a shame that Chery left this summer. He had been one of the pillars in my team.”

Before arriving in the north, Tjaronn Chery had been the creative heartbeat of Steijn’s ADO Den Haag. Watching his former star playmaker pull the strings for a rival club clearly stung. Steijn’s column is a stark reminder of the Eredivisie food chain, where sub-top clubs like Groningen can ruthlessly poach the best talent from teams lower down the ladder, directly altering the trajectory of both clubs’ seasons.

A Look into the Future

Maurice Steijn’s lament was entirely justified. Tjaronn Chery didn’t just become a good player for FC Groningen; he became their absolute talisman, leading them to KNVB Cup glory and eventually securing a highly lucrative transfer abroad. Steijn, meanwhile, had to navigate a difficult period, eventually leaving ADO Den Haag. However, his managerial career was far from over. By 2026, Steijn’s journey had taken him through various dramatic highs and lows in Dutch football, including a highly publicized and turbulent stint as the head coach of Ajax. But on this cold December day in 2013, his biggest headache was simply trying to stop the player he used to rely on.