Marked for Jonathan De Bie
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑1 against Zaglebie, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Leander Openda was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Toby Meunier at 21 — 8.04
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Toby Meunier did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mousa Onana 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Mouscron
Radja Hazard 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 terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Toby Meunier 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Mouscron, 1‑0 the final word against KV Oostende in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateo Cardona and Mouscron agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Mouscron's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mouscron has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mousa Onana 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Radja Hazard 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Tony Andreu gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
When it matters, Nacer Onana 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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Mouscron until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Altach keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Mouscron
Radja Hazard and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leander Chadli 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mouscron are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Michy Tielemans named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Michy Tielemans is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.