Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Waasland-Beveren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Waasland-Beveren, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Léandre Kuavita is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer from KAA Gent for Ferre Slegers 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arno Verschueren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Waasland-Beveren go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Mouscron have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hüseyin Ertürk. The answer from Waasland-Beveren has not changed — yet.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Waasland-Beveren, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Léandre Kuavita and Waasland-Beveren agree another 4 years.
Victor Olatunji 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arno Verschueren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Waasland-Beveren have made the call to Juventus. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Waasland-Beveren 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 had been thinking. Arno Verschueren 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arno Verschueren 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.
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 Jannik Robatsch is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Waasland-Beveren know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sieben Dewaele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waasland-Beveren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Victor Olatunji 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arno Verschueren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to KV Oostende to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waasland-Beveren and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waasland-Beveren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Waasland-Beveren will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
In brief
The dugoutViktor Boone knocks on the manager’s door
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waasland-Beveren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lennart Mertens and Waasland-Beveren agree another 2 years.
Sieben Dewaele 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Waasland-Beveren can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sieben Dewaele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
12 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.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Waasland-Beveren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Waasland-Beveren asked and Zugdidi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Victor Olatunji 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Laurent Tielemans after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Waasland-Beveren will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arno Verschueren signs something — a contract at Waasland-Beveren or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 8.84 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout12 Oct 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.” Laurent Tielemans, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Victor Olatunji has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
A brace, and Ilyes Najim takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilyes Najim provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Beau Reus and Waasland-Beveren agree another 5 years.
Bruno Godeau 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.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.