$4.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Racing Genk, the club has $4.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Francs Borains had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Westerlo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Fosso 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Francs Borains can tell you which week it ends in.
Francs Borains 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Genk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The chase for Mathias Fixelles ended with $4.3M changing hands and Francs Borains out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mathias Fixelles is living that version at Racing Genk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Simakan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Racing Genk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at SC Bastia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Francs Borains have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Maxime Bastian was one of the reasons people came, and $2.7M does not replace that by itself.
Francs Borains had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lierse, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Francs Borains offered $1.1M; Westerlo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Francs Borains
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Axel Mignolet 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Laurent Lukaku 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dorian Dessoleil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Francs Borains is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Brad Manguelle 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.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Christian Carrasco 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timothy 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. Eden Doku 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.
“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 Francs Borains, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with OH Leuven is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ryan Fosso 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lyen Ferrant is 18, and Francs Borains have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
Standard Liege will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tarik Kilic has pre-agreed a move to Francs Borains, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dorian Dessoleil 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Francs Borains 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.
Nobody at Francs Borains will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Francs Borains know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Hicham Mahou will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Francs Borains escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ryan Fosso 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.
It needed Hicham Mahou to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Olympic Charleroi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Something was said to Hugo Siquet and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Enoha Bontems 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Slobodan Stanojlović 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad8 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and Francs Borains 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
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 Simon Onana to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sebastian Musiolik provided it, and the 7.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Francs Borains is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sebastian Musiolik 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ryan Fosso 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Musiolik. 3‑1 against Club NXT, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Sebastian Musiolik in the middle of it, and Club NXT unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Francs Borains will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Fosso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Francs Borains 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Patro Eisden the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Francs Borains will enjoy reviewing.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayan Berberi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Sebastian Musiolik is on it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Simon Onana chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Amine Benfriha
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romain Donnez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Francs Borains the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chase for Kiany Vroman ended with $470.0K changing hands and Lierse out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Fosso 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The bid was some way short and Francs Borains did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
$470.0K settles it between the clubs for Kiany Vroman
Lierse have accepted the money. What Francs Borains do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and Francs Borains go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sebastian Musiolik 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Francs Borains will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Francs Borains people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Racing Genk, the club has $2.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Anderlecht; Francs Borains go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Eupen is saying, and nobody at Francs Borains is enjoying the guessing.
Waasland-Beveren pay $570.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Francs Borains will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Cercle Brugge for Mathias Fixelles 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Francs Borains have had the benefit of it.
Everything agreed with Olympic Charleroi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: RFC Liege have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aboubacar Ali. The answer from Francs Borains has not changed — yet.
Massimo Bruno 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Francs Borains is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Francs Borains will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hicham Mahou. 1‑0 against KV Kortrijk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Massimo Bruno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 8, 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.
Romain Donnez 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.
14 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
He is 23 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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Slobodan Stanojlović 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Nobody at Francs Borains will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hicham Mahou. 1‑0 against RSCA Futures, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Simon Onana could afford to be generous.
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 Lucas Lima is on it.
Nobody at Francs Borains is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Matthias Francotte 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.
“I watch every Francs Borains 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 dugout21 Sep 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 0‑1 Simon Onana left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romain Donnez 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sebastian Musiolik has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.