Marked for Dylan Ragolle
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Aug 2027
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokeren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market30 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokeren have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match25 Aug 2027
The small margins put Lokeren out
Out, 0‑1 to Anderlecht, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokeren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Lokeren have gone to KV Kortrijk with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokeren is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Boris Palacios
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokeren people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 Lokeren, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokeren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Preston, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Lokeren
Visar Musliu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Lokeren
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Challouk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Napoli: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Visar Musliu joins from Sint-Truiden in a deal worth $1.2M. Now comes the harder part.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 23 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jens Cools 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Challouk 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Dylan Ragolle
“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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
No place for Bouke Boersma in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokeren know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
Jens Cools in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Youssef Challouk 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.
Market31 May 2027
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lokeren told Lahcen Gourbi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 May 2027
Lokeren sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market10 May 2027
“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 Lokeren, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Lokeren
Jens Cools and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Youssef Challouk 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.
Market10 May 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jason Alderweireld has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 May 2027
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Crisis meeting at Lokeren
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 May 2027
“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 Lokeren, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 May 2027
Jens Cools in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Youssef Challouk 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Dylan Ragolle
“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 dugout3 May 2027
Jonathan Jiménez loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jonathan Jiménez's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market3 May 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Boris Palacios may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Apr 2027
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 16 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market12 Apr 2027
Tony Andreu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Jens Cools in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Youssef Challouk 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthieu Ezikian, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Lokeren says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Mar 2027
Lokeren sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Jens Cools in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Lokeren
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Challouk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Shean Garlito for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lokeren will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Lokeren are still strangers to each other
5 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.