“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 The request is on a desk at Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Anosike Ementa 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 May 2029
Cisse Sandra 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.
Nobody at Westerlo 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ndoh Wamfor has written the date down.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Ferris N'Goma’s negotiating for him
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Westerlo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Westerlo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Anosike Ementa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Cisse Sandra 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 Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Westerlo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Westerlo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Westerlo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Westerlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Anosike Ementa 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 Jan 2029
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Botond Balogh 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and KV Oostende were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Westerlo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Envigado for Felix Tsimba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Botond Balogh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Westerlo know it.
“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.
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 Botond Balogh is on it.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charleroi have kept their man, and Westerlo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Botond Balogh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Westerlo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑3 against Club Brugge, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Westerlo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. David Amegnaglo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sifiso Mazibuko is living that version at Westerlo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Zulte Waregem paid $1.6M and Westerlo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Anosike Ementa 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.
In brief
SquadAnosike Ementa has improved at 26, which nobody expected
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Westerlo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Standard Liege had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Westerlo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Piast for Oskar Annell 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 Botond Balogh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 15 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Westerlo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Westerlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Van Den Keybus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from Luke Baartman.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Westerlo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Westerlo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutAmando Lapage asks for a word with the manager