Marked for Massimo Decoene
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Aug 2027
Sint-Truiden ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KV Mechelen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at KV Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for KV Mechelen
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around KV Mechelen are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ryoya Yamashita 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ortwin De Wolf 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
KV Mechelen asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match28 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
David Algarra damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market28 Jun 2027
Cambuur come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KV Mechelen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market28 Jun 2027
Gora Diouf has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Mechelen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 terraces28 Jun 2027
KV Mechelen sell a favourite for $4.5M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Benito Raman was one of the reasons people came, and $4.5M does not replace that by itself.
Market28 Jun 2027
Benito Raman has left for Anderlecht in a $4.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Myron van Brederode is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
KV Mechelen asked and Waasland-Beveren said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Bill Antonio in a row with a teammate
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for David Algarra
71 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and OH Leuven waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Bill Antonio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ortwin De Wolf 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
KV Mechelen asked and Nottingham Forest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at KV Mechelen who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to KAA Gent: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market7 Jun 2027
Massimo Decoene is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Mechelen has been clear about where Massimo Decoene stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
The knee: David Algarra out for 120 days
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Mechelen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Ortwin De Wolf 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Algarra, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Jerry Afriyie has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ortwin De Wolf’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ortwin De Wolf 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and KV Mechelen know now that the thought has arrived.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Myron van Brederode’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ortwin De Wolf 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 Mar 2027
Thomas Delaine 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at KV Mechelen, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Mechelen told Leo Fuhr Hjelde something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market1 Mar 2027
Dikeni Salifou is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Mechelen has been clear about where Dikeni Salifou stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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 dugout1 Mar 2027
Gora Diouf knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gora Diouf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market1 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Myron van Brederode’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at KV Mechelen has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Jerry Afriyie at 20 — 8.11
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jerry Afriyie did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
KV Mechelen keep winning on the road
6 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ortwin De Wolf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 20 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Jerry Afriyie’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to KV Mechelen.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Myron van Brederode was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fredrik Hammar, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Mathieu Cornet out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sint-Truiden will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ryotaro Ito 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Arbnor Muja beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Anderlecht left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Visar Musliu 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 dugout28 Dec 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 Radja Mignolet left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Fabien Antunes
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for KV Mechelen — 7.64
1 for Fredrik Hammar, marked 7.64, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bill Antonio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Eerdhuijzen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Dec 2026
Three points for KV Mechelen, 3‑1 the final word against KV Kortrijk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.96 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, KV Mechelen had the best player on the pitch.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every KV Mechelen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sint-Truiden runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Adnan Carrasco could afford to be generous.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jerry Afriyie, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Mechelen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bill Antonio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.87 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
At 23 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ortwin De Wolf 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Sint-Truiden to sit and watch. I want to come back to KV Mechelen and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Taiga Hata
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Sint-Truiden
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sint-Truiden are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ryotaro Araki scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Anderlecht, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Sint-Truiden training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taiga Hata 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Robert-Jan Vanwesemael has his answer from Sint-Truiden; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Samed Baždar is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout14 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 1‑2 Radja Mignolet left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑3 against Charleroi, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Sint-Truiden, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sint-Truiden close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sint-Truiden have done the hard part with KV Mechelen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shogo Taniguchi, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Taiga Hata 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
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Squad
15 new faces, and Sint-Truiden are still learning each other
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Leo Kokubo gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OH Leuven have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Waasland-Beveren did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.2M for Christophe Janssens, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Bourg-Peronnas for Massimo Decoene 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $540.0K — a club that wants Josué Homawoo enough to be asked twice.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to KV Mechelen's wait for a win
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$510.0K on the table at Standard Liege. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Williams Mphela 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KV Mechelen will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Mechelen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
Anderlecht come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KV Mechelen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Racing Genk; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Jerry Afriyie enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mike Eerdhuijzen commits to KV Mechelen for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bill Antonio in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Massimo Decoene has come up in conversations KV Mechelen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.