10 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
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 Mihajlo Cvetković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abubakar Abdullahi provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Kana 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 21 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.
Position 7, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thorgan Tielemans on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Henry Lawrence 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Kana 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.
“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; Seraing are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Francs Borains in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Vankerkhoven trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 for Noah Solheid, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Kana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Noah Solheid. 1‑0 against Cercle Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody at Seraing saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Genk is saying, and nobody at Seraing is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Marco Kana ended with $2.9M changing hands and Anderlecht out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
$780.0K was the most the club would pay and Charleroi were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marco Kana was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Coopman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Seraing will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Seraing and Anderlecht have settled on $2.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Thiago Paulo da Silva reports back to Seraing with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Seraing have gone to Charleroi 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Noah Solheid and Seraing agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Coopman 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.
Seraing asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Lucas Vankerkhoven 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Coopman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lucas Vankerkhoven 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Seraing know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Seraing can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Seraing will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emmanuel Da Costa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Nick Gillekens is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Seraing will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Isaías Delpupo 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Âdfaoui 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iebe Swers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Djibril Diarra has his answer from Seraing; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Seraing know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Arthur De Bolle has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Timothé Nkada
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Seraing can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and RSCA Futures were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Édouard Soumah-Abbad 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.
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.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Iebe Swers.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 0‑1 Thorgan Tielemans left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fostave Mabani has his answer from Seraing; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Terry Van De Ven is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Âdfaoui 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 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thierno Gaye’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Seraing needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Emmanuel Da Costa 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Âdfaoui 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Isaías Delpupo had Seraing level again within 2 minutes, and Patro Eisden never got to play with a lead at all.
It needed Isaías Delpupo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Patro Eisden, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Thorgan Tielemans was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Seraing dressing room was either.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Sander Coopman
1‑4 against Francs Borains, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Âdfaoui 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Seraing told Mohammed El Âdfaoui something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Seraing are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
Isaías Delpupo 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.
Seraing asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Standard Liege have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.