43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OH Leuven lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade de Reims keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 OH Leuven know it.
Takuya Iwanami 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.
Add another name to the list: Dender have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wouter George. The answer from OH Leuven has not changed — yet.
OH Leuven asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 The request is on a desk at RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Standard Liege is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RWDM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Fréderic Soelle Soelle has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gaëtan Robail
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KR will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 May 2027
A brace, and Quentin Paris takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Quentin Paris provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KR have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Eiður Gauti Sæbjörnsson 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 ratings24 May 2027
Ryan Ogam was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabríel Hrannar Eyjólfsson 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.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and RWDM have had the benefit of it.
Thorgan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bill Lathouwers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 May 2027
Aïman Maurer 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KR will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ryan Ogam provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Ogam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fréderic Soelle Soelle 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KR will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fréderic Soelle Soelle 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 had been thinking. Gabríel Hrannar Eyjólfsson 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Thorgan 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Kwasi Poku 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 RWDM 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Justin Bengui Joao trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RWDM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yacouba Barry 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bill Lathouwers signs something — a contract at RWDM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at RWDM 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.
50 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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 Steven Hernández has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KR will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fréderic Soelle Soelle is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
KR close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KR 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 Aron Þórður Albertsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everything agreed with FC Annecy, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and KR know which stage they are at.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Eiður Gauti Sæbjörnsson 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 easiest signature of my career.” Gabríel Hrannar Eyjólfsson and KR agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabríel Hrannar Eyjólfsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wolfsberger AC 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Stromsgodset had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Kwasi Poku 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.
“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; RWDM are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RWDM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jakob Gunnar Sigurðsson is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at IF Elfsborg is saying, and nobody at KR is enjoying the guessing.
“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; KR are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almere City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Jamie Jacobs 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.
Emmen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Guus Timber to a room that had heard them before.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around RWDM are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
RWDM close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 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.
Everything agreed with Fenerbahce, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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 RWDM know it.
Thorgan 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.
Marked 8.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kwasi Poku
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
At 18 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.
Junior Kadile 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coventry City have kept their man, and Almere City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Valentín Adamo had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Seraing were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Valentín Adamo provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. RWDM will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 21 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RWDM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toulouse FC have kept their man, and RWDM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yacouba Barry 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kwasi Poku 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Olivier Dumont 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.
“I watch every RWDM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Almere City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
Something was said to Kanji Okunuki and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. RWDM will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RWDM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Heracles go through and Almere City go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Salim Musah, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jorthy Mokio 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.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
6 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Justin Bengui Joao is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 RWDM, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Guillaume Hubert is on 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pjotr Kestens trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almere City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Almere City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Milan de Haan 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almere City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.91. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Guus Timber, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Almere City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Byron Burgering 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Almere City close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 22 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Francs Borains have kept their man, and Almere City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Almere City, another week without a signature from Junior Kadile.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marley Cruz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Almere City 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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Fréderic Soelle Soelle arrives from RWDM with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Junior Kadile takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Junior Kadile provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marley Cruz did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Almere City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Copenhagen, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almere City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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.
RWDM asked and Kawasaki Frontale said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Arne Cassaert 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
RWDM had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Gamba Osaka, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Arne Cassaert 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.
Add another name to the list: Francs Borains have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Olivier Dumont. The answer from RWDM has not changed — yet.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation RWDM are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.