“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marc Cucurella 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michy Openda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
“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.
Marc Cucurella 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.
Marc Cucurella 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KAA Gent are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KAA Gent heard it as anything 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.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Adnan Januzaj 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.
Marked 8.71 — 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.