1‑5 to KV Mechelen, 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lokeren have gone to KV Mechelen 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lokeren and KV Mechelen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef Challouk. 3‑1 against KV Oostende, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Boussaïd was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.02 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.” Youri Chadli kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 dugout19 Oct 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Youri Chadli to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lokeren told Alexandro Calut something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Khalis Merah 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 easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Van der Ackerveken and Lokeren agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokeren can tell you which week it ends in.
Khalis Merah 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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑4 Youri Chadli left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutShean Garlito dropped after a run of poor form
6 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.
Everything agreed with Olympique Lyonnais, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
31 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lokeren will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Pollet, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Youri Chadli chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zulte Waregem defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against OH Leuven in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
A loan enquiry to Standard Liege: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Lokeren have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Lois Vanaken from KV Oostende for $1.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Axel Hazard 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leander Boyata 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Youssef Challouk has just signed for Lokeren, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to KV Oostende 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.
Lokeren have gone to Sint-Truiden 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
21 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lokeren and KV Oostende in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
19 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.