Mitchel Bakker joins NEC: A promise for those who dare to think differently?

On Friday afternoon in Nijmegen, I received a message from an old journalist friend: NEC had just completed the signing of Mitchel Bakker. The news was quiet. No transfer fee, no grand press conference. Just a short statement on the club website and a line from technical director Carlos Aalbers about the player having “played at the highest level.” To me, this is a deal worth reading far more carefully than its modest appearance suggests. I once mispronounced the name of a legend, and I learned that football does not forgive carelessness. I do not intend to make the same mistake when judging a player who touched the summit and then fell. Bakker is 26 years old, born in the Netherlands, and developed in the Ajax academy. He had respectable spells at PSG, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, and Atalanta. But since the summer, he has been a free agent without a single competitive minute. NEC signed him on a free transfer until the end of the season, with a one-year extension option belonging to the club. He can play left-back, left midfielder, and emergency centre-back. The club are competing in the Europa League, and this weekend they travel to Ajax. That is a perfect script for a “prodigal son” story, but football does not write scripts based on emotion. Bakker’s tactical value lies in his versatility. For a team stretched across two competitions, a player who can cover three positions is a priceless asset. Coach Dick Schreuder can rotate without breaking the team structure. When the left-back needs rest, Bakker steps in. When the left midfielder is suspended, Bakker fills the gap. When a centre-back is injured, Bakker is not the ideal option, but he is better than an inexperienced academy player. In modern football, that flexibility allows a coaching staff to solve many problems with one contract that cost no transfer fee. I have followed Bakker since his Ajax youth days. He has the qualities of a modern full-back: pace, attacking intent, and confidence on the ball. At PSG, he was never the first choice, but he remained a reliable squad player. At Leverkusen, he performed more consistently. His issue was never technique or tactical intelligence. It was consistency and fitness over a long season. When you leave Atalanta at 26 and fail to find a club all summer, the market sends a clear message: your value is being questioned. But the contract structure of this deal is what truly caught my attention. No transfer fee. Short-term contract. The extension option belongs only to the club. This is a classic “prove yourself” agreement. Bakker accepted an unfavourable deal to regain playing time. NEC risk nothing beyond a few months of wages, and they keep full control over whether to continue or stop at the end of the season. If Bakker rediscovers his form, NEC hold a regenerated asset at no acquisition cost. If he cannot, the loss is minimal. For a mid-tier Dutch club, this is the smartest kind of transaction a technical director can make. People often talk about blockbuster transfers, but Dutch football is famous for the art of buying low and selling high. NEC are following that exact model. They brought in a player with a European CV and top-level experience, then placed him in a less pressured environment to rebuild. If Bakker plays well, he could be sold for a profit within a year. If not, NEC still lose nothing financially. This is the logic of a talent investment fund, not a club buying on impulse. However, there is one risk the NEC board cannot ignore: fitness. Bakker has not played competitively since the summer. He may have trained for a few weeks, and his fitness base may be good, but nothing replaces real match sharpness. The intensity of the Eredivisie, even if below the Premier League, demands sharp speed, duels, and reading of the game. A player who has been out for a long time usually needs several weeks to return to the right rhythm. NEC need patience. They should not expect Bakker to walk into the Ajax match and play as if he had never left top-level football. The interesting part is that Dutch media are focusing on the reunion with Ajax this weekend. Bakker came through the Ajax academy, left young, and now returns to face his old club. That is a wonderful story angle. But I think it is a trap. The media love emotional returns, but good coaches love calculation. I could be wrong. Maybe Bakker is ready right now. Maybe playing against Ajax will reignite a forgotten player. In football, fairytales do sometimes happen. I am ready to accept that. People call me crazy. But my madness has its own logic. And that logic says: a player who has not played since the summer should not be thrown into a high-stakes match immediately. NEC should ease Bakker in, perhaps from the bench, so he can acclimatise to match tempo before taking on a bigger responsibility. In the dressing room, Bakker’s arrival also sends a notable signal. He has played for PSG, played in the Champions League, and trained with top players. That experience can help NEC’s younger squad members. But it could also cause friction if Bakker receives special treatment. The short-term contract with a one-sided option reduces that risk: Bakker arrives as someone looking for an opportunity, not a pampered star. That creates a healthy psychological dynamic for both sides. I once said that the heart of football is not in the stands, but in the sighs of those who remain behind. Players like Bakker are the ones left behind in the great story of modern football. They are not mentioned in title races, they do not appear on front pages with hundred-million-euro moves. But they still exist, still train, still wait for a door to open. NEC are opening that door. The only question is whether Bakker has enough desire to walk through it. More broadly, this move reflects a reality of the European transfer market: players who once featured in the top five leagues often fall into the hands of mid-tier clubs like NEC, only to rediscover their value. This is not unusual. The Eredivisie, the Portuguese league, and the Belgian league regularly welcome discarded players, give them minutes, and then sell them on to bigger clubs. Bakker is one piece in that value chain. If things go well, he will be a vivid example of the NEC model. If he fails, he will be just another name on the list of talents who never reached their limits. In deep analysis, I always try to find a signal most people miss. Here, the signal is not Bakker’s name. It is the one-sided extension clause. It shows that NEC are not driven by emotion. They signed Bakker because he was free, because he is versatile, and because he can help them stay competitive in the Europa League. They did not sign him because of his old reputation. If the NEC board keep that clarity throughout the season, they will have a valuable player. If they get caught up in the Ajax narrative and burn Bakker too early, they will turn a smart move into a big mistake. Football does not forgive carelessness. I made the mistake of mispronouncing Modric’s name, and I paid for it with public embarrassment. I learned that every small detail matters. With Bakker, the most important detail is not his name, but the pace of his integration. NEC should remember that. If they let him adapt gradually, they may be holding one of the smartest signings of the season. If they rush, they will only have a frustrated player and an incomplete old love story. Age 51 taught me that haste is a catalyst, but only when distilled through experience. Bakker needs time, and NEC need time to fully unlock his value. None of us should forget that Bakker is only 26, still in the peak phase of his career. If handled properly, he can play at a high level for at least another five years. The question is whether he can rediscover lost belief. The answer will come in the coming months, not on Saturday. And I will be watching closely, because every mistake in front of the camera is a chance to rewrite one’s own story. This time, I do not want to rewrite Bakker’s story with bitter words.