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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RAAL La Louviere this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 RAAL La Louviere know it.
1‑2 away to the standard of Viborg. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tiago Pereira Cardoso 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordi Liongola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at RAAL La Louviere pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Youri Kompany was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the RAAL La Louviere dressing room was either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thierry Lutonda and RAAL La Louviere agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
At 36, 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. RAAL La Louviere will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at RAAL La Louviere has been clear about where Wagane Faye stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Thierno Diallo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jordi Liongola’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and RAAL La Louviere needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Jordy Peffer a promise
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Noah Makembo-Ntemo is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
The goal that put Union SG ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when RAAL La Louviere equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Youri Kompany to a room that had heard them before.
Sint-Truiden next, and one man in the RAAL La Louviere dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 22 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.27, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RAAL La Louviere this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Liongola 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Youri Kompany, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.