Marked for Thibaud Sergeant
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tsuyoshi Watanabe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at RAAL La Louviere training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gautier Lloris 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RAAL La Louviere can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Something was said to Malick Mbaye and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Hans Hateboer gets picked when it counts
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 Hans Hateboer is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Théo Pellenard
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RAAL La Louviere lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The offer went to Zulte Waregem this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
An offer of $500.0K for Tobias Hedl
RAAL La Louviere have gone to Zulte Waregem with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Tsuyoshi Watanabe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at RAAL La Louviere
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at RAAL La Louviere training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Liongola 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 targets26 Jul 2027
RAAL La Louviere 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Zulte Waregem did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
7 academy graduates step up at Zulte Waregem
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Claes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Zulte Waregem 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anosike Ementa, and the manager let it.
Market26 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas De Ketelaere has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad26 Jul 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 Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 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 Zulte Waregem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 19 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$360.0K was the most the club would pay and Dender were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Kiilerich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan move for Jonathan Gradit is in the works
Zulte Waregem have made the call to RC Lens. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market14 Jun 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zulte Waregem will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Néhémie Lurika, and the manager let it.
Market14 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brent Gabriel signs something — a contract at Zulte Waregem or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Beerschot ended it 3‑5. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match26 Aug 2026
Stan Sieuw had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Beerschot were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Heracles for Anosike Ementa 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Thibaud Sergeant at 20 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thibaud Sergeant did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Utrecht is saying, and nobody at Zulte Waregem is enjoying the guessing.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Zulte Waregem
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zulte Waregem are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gamba Osaka have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Zalán Átrok ran the middle of the pitch — 7.31
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.31, and not one of them will make a highlights package.