Marked for Dimitri Lavalée
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout1 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Standard Liege may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Standard Liege is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch1 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Enzo Crivelli’s exile
17 goals in 25 games at USL Dunkerque — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Standard Liege updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout1 May 2028
This is not rotation. Josué Homawoo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Standard Liege is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobias Mohr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch1 May 2028
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Winterthur continues; the message travels home.
The dugout1 May 2028
Something was said to Jaurès Assoumou and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 May 2028
When it matters, Aimé Omgba plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Apr 2028
Perr Schuurs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Allan Saint-Maximin 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
A promise honoured for Matte Smets
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Standard Liege told Matte Smets something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Salieu Drammeh
“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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
30 starts and an average of 6.77. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Market24 Apr 2028
Standard Liege have let the market know Matthieu Epolo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
28 starts and an average of 6.89. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Adnane Abid knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Standard Liege, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
$30.0M from Club Brugge for Julián Quiñones. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vitesse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Standard Liege is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
$11.5M on the table at Racing Genk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Jan 2028
Standard Liege refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Boško Šutalo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Standard Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Julián Quiñones was one of the reasons people came, and $30.0M does not replace that by itself.
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer from Grasshopper for Ibe Hautekiet was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match15 Jan 2028
3 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Dec 2027
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Standard Liege came through the finding-out well against Bayer Leverkusen.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Perr Schuurs goes up and wins it — 7.44
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.44 for the rest of it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Allan Saint-Maximin 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.
Match12 Dec 2027
Perr Schuurs scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to KV Mechelen, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A defender's afternoon for Zeno Debast
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout13 Dec 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 1‑2 Yannick Fellaini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
No place for Adnane Abid on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Standard Liege pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Dec 2027
0‑2, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Squad6 Dec 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Aimé Omgba 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Saint-Maximin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Casper Nielsen, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Something was said to Marlon Fossey and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amos Mpanzu and Standard Liege agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout6 Dec 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 0‑2 Yannick Fellaini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
Perr Schuurs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Saint-Maximin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Allan Saint-Maximin is on it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Maxime Delanghe
“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.
Market15 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Julián Quiñones’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Casper Nielsen asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sint-Truiden in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Standard Liege would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Matthieu Epolo wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Standard Liege have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Standard Liege people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad30 Aug 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match28 Aug 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Standard Liege have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Allan Saint-Maximin 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 terraces30 Aug 2027
The crowd has taken to Amos Mpanzu
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match28 Aug 2027
Three points for Standard Liege, 2‑0 the final word against Westerlo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Mohr 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Casper Nielsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibe Hautekiet, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.98, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yannick Fellaini on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Enzo Crivelli gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Enzo Crivelli is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Standard Liege support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Perr Schuurs 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Allan Saint-Maximin 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aimé Omgba, and the manager let it.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Standard Liege game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RFC Liege runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yannick Fellaini on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Julián Quiñones 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Saint-Maximin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 win over Sint-Truiden, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthieu Epolo, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Anthony Modeste dropped after a run of poor form
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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Yannick Fellaini, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Bookings catch up with Tobias Mohr
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Standard Liege will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Allan Saint-Maximin 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tobias Mohr 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Aimé Omgba knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aimé Omgba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Adnane Abid gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Adnane Abid is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Daan Dierckx
“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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dimitri Lavalée’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Standard Liege needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matthieu Epolo signs something — a contract at Standard Liege or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 starts and an average of 6.78. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
A side in position 12 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Julián Quiñones damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match4 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over RWDM, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Allan Saint-Maximin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Perr Schuurs
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Boli Bolingoli at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Standard Liege.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
7.60, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Standard Liege had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Aimé Omgba asks for a word with the manager
“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.