4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KV Mechelen has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mike Eerdhuijzen's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hassane Bandé has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
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.
“I watch every KV Mechelen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Groningen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The offer from Seraing for Bilal Bafdili 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
5 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.
The phone has started ringing about Bilal Bafdili again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. KV Mechelen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at KV Mechelen is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Myron van Brederode and KV Mechelen agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Hassane Bandé 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KV Mechelen will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
KV Mechelen asked and Union SG said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bilal Bafdili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Nantes 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at KV Mechelen and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Simion Michez 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 Mohamed Amine Chakir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Apr 2027
José Marsà 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Rak-Sakyi 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 Bilal Bafdili is on it.
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 KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 KV Mechelen have no good answer.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Den Bosch suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to KV Mechelen, and the summer will force it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Daniel Klein a promise
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen 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 KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. 15 actions, 7.24, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ortwin De Wolf. 1‑0 against Club Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassane Bandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Seraing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Charleroi for Benito Raman 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Mechelen have done the hard part with Eupen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
At 22 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Cercle Brugge go through and KV Mechelen go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Toby Doku after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Golič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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 0‑2 Toby Doku left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassane Bandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Antwerp next, and one man in the KV Mechelen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Damien Mouchamps ended with $1.1M changing hands and RFC Liege out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $850.0K — a club that wants Thomas Foket enough to be asked twice.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Thomas Foket at that price