But what I don't understand is his sudden change of mentality from being up for fighting for his place to suddenly scurrying off to Wigan. When the move was first mooted this time last week there was some slightly suspicion discussed that perhaps Paul Jewell was exerting an influence on De Zeeuw to try and get him back to the JJB for the new season; perhaps illegally so.
And hark! So it has come to be! Today Peter Storrie has told the world;
"We could be talking about an illegal approach. We gave Arjan's agent permission to go and hold talks with Wigan and the next thing we knew he was down there training with them without our permission. We had agreed a fee but still had some stuff to sort out. I am very disappointed with the way things have been done."
But I feel a brief recap is needed. Cast your mind back to July 12th and this quote from our former captain speaking about the arrival of Andy O'Brien;
"I'll be the last to say don't sign anybody different because I want to play every game. That's silly because you need competition if we want to do well this season, we need to have cover throughout the season as you're going to get injuries and suspensions. Of course I want to play as many games as I can - I want to play every game but I'm sure he'll want to do the same but there's also Dejan and Linvoy who want to play. It's a good little push for myself."
So why the sudden change of heart? De Zeeuw himself has stated that;
"Losing your place isn't a problem if you feel you will be given the chance to win it back, but I didn't have a good feeling under the new manager."
Alain Perrin countered this claim in the tit-for-tat media war by claiming that;
"Arjan said because he is an older player he should be in every game, but it was up to Arjan to prove he was the best man for the job."
Blimey. So what does it all mean?
For what it's worth here's my personal opinion, and it's quite probably wide of the mark and a little bit too "X-Files". Paul Jewell saw that Zoo was likely to be down the pecking order this season and made an "inquiry" behind our back, promising him first team football and a nice big contract if he could engineer a move. De Zeeuw saw the opportunity to get regular action and you can't blame him for wanting to take his chance, although I believe cynically he put the club in a ridiculous position by saying he insisted on first team football - something which he surely knew would be rejected. This gave him the excuse to slap in a transfer request, for Paul Jewell to handily come knocking and for the whole thing to go off.
Whether that interpretation is right or wrong (and I'd guess the latter), it's obvious that we probably won't actually hear about this again. We're not a Chelsea or an Arsenal and these sort of things can go on at the lower end of our league simply because we're not high profile enough. Still it's certainly food for thought.