Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Flips will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mario Stroeykens and Anderlecht agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Anderlecht has been clear about where Ludwig Augustinsson stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anderlecht told Marco Kana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Killian Sardella is on 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3‑0 against Pogon, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Enric Llansana.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Anderlecht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ritsu Doan 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against RAAL La Louviere; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Colin Coosemans will call it something else in private.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anderlecht they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ritsu Doan 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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Stroeykens 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.
12 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Terry Van De Ven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Anderlecht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marcos Peano 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Terry Van De Ven is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Killian Sardella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Anderlecht will be judged on one thing only.
Nobody at Anderlecht 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
2‑0 against MFK Ruzomberok, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Danylo Sikan was at the centre of the description.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anderlecht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Marcos Peano 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Anderlecht pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 Anderlecht know it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Anderlecht heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Terry Van De Ven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
“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 Anderlecht, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Newport County had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anderlecht have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Crystal Palace for Mario Stroeykens 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Anderlecht 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.
Ritsu Doan 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 Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Anderlecht know which stage they are at.