2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Westerlo the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Jong Gent will enjoy reviewing.
7.58, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Pieter Gerkens and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. René Vanden Borre has come out of that comparison in the side, and Jong Gent have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong Gent can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Mamadou Diallo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Jong Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El Hadji Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mamadou Diallo 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dries De Ketelaere on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Noah Laghmich
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. El Hadji Seck did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pieter Gerkens 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksandr Soroka and Jong Gent agree another 5 years.
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Jong Gent have made Maxime Lestienne available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Jassim Mazouz is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad10 Jan 2028
El Hadji Seck 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.
1‑2 to Lokeren-Temse, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Dries De Ketelaere left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The name of Simon Buggea has come up in conversations Jong Gent were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Simon Buggea 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jong Gent has been clear about where Maxime Lestienne stands, which is more than many ever get.
12 combined actions and 7.53. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdoul Ayindé 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.
Pieter Gerkens 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El Hadji Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Jong Gent is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Jong Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Jong Gent was different afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutNoah Laghmich asks for a word with the manager
0‑3 to Seraing, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jong Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Jong Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El Hadji Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dries De Ketelaere after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simon Buggea did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Núrio 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El Hadji Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong Gent will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Dries De Ketelaere could afford to be generous.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Youssef Challouk has moved up it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
El Hadji Seck 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. René Vanden Borre knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dries De Ketelaere after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Jong Gent have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jong Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Pieter Gerkens 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
El Hadji Seck 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Jong Gent prefer.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong Gent will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Youssef Challouk has written the date down.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jong Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Krylya Sovetov for Gilles De Meyer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Jong Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El Hadji Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Dries De Ketelaere kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jong Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Jong Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Donny Sylla. 1‑0 against Lokeren-Temse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Jong Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Jong Gent than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until El Hadji Seck signs something — a contract at Jong Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Jong Gent will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Jong Gent was different afterwards.
The offer from TSC for Aleksander Bobek was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Bas Evers 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.
KAA Gent offered $38.0K; Club Brugge said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dries Vertonghen has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Axel Januzaj is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michy Carrasco has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at KAA Gent saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Delorge signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Davy Roef 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahima Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Something was said to Matisse Samoise and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Divock Origi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OH Leuven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moctar Diop trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Yira Sor has moved up it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Davy Roef and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at KAA Gent, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Romain Amalfitano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Adem Zorgane 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.
“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 KAA Gent know it.
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Divock Origi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yira Sor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Club Brugge moved on, Momodou Sonko reports back to KAA Gent, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxime Lestienne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutDavy Roef has become a man the manager trusts
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. KAA Gent have paid $3.5M for Yira Sor, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$3.3M on the table at KV Mechelen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The fee is $2.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Anderlecht drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. KV Kortrijk drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer went to Union SG this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$2.6M settles it between the clubs for Alexis Flips
Anderlecht have accepted the money. What KAA Gent do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KAA Gent have done the hard part with Racing Genk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. KAA Gent have paid $1.9M for Lennard Hens, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathias Delorge is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lennard Hens has, at KAA Gent, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer from Remo Stars for Abubakar Abdullahi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAA Gent lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑0 against OB, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Maxime Lestienne was at the centre of the description.
Moctar Diop had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Union SG were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Maksim Paskotši scored, was marked 7.41, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gyano Vanderdonck is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Divock Origi 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.41 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Divock Origi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitri Payet, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Moctar Diop 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.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OH Leuven runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at KAA Gent pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
$25.5M on the table at Al-Hilal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Eupen for Aimé Omgba was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
KAA Gent asked and Stade Brestois said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deal with Charleroi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Mohamed Koné enough to be asked twice.
Davy Roef 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.