Marked for Brian Sarmiento
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Lennart Mertens takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lennart Mertens provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sieben Dewaele was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lennart Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Waasland-Beveren told Viktor Boone something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Bruno Godeau spends the afternoon fouling
Fouls conceded: 6. He was booked, he was fortunate not to be booked twice, and the referee had run out of patience long before the end.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sieben Dewaele was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Toby Meunier is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lennart Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Waasland-Beveren know it.
Match17 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Waasland-Beveren can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waasland-Beveren can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Waasland-Beveren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kevin De Ketelaere is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Waasland-Beveren are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Waasland-Beveren, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lennart Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bruno Godeau gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match3 Oct 2026
OH Leuven left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
4.17 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sieben Dewaele was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Chris Lokesa, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Waasland-Beveren are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waasland-Beveren can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lennart Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Chris Lokesa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad7 Sep 2026
44 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.