It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis Hadjem 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.
Half the programme played, position 3, 25 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Nobody at Francs Borains 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simon Onana after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Something was said to Steeven Assengue and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Philipp Wydra 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 Nov 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jessi Da Silva 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Francs Borains will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jessi Da Silva provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 2‑0 win over Club NXT, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match16 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Francs Borains. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yanis Hadjem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jessi Da Silva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Yanis Hadjem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simon Onana on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Francs Borains lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Francs Borains, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Fosso 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.
Francs Borains asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kevin O'Toole 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.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 Francs Borains, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with OH Leuven 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ryan Fosso 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Francs Borains this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lyen Ferrant is 18, and Francs Borains have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
Standard Liege will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tarik Kilic has pre-agreed a move to Francs Borains, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dorian Dessoleil 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Francs Borains 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.
Nobody at Francs Borains 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Francs Borains know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Francs Borains is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Ryan Fosso 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.
Hossni Soye Ndime 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.
Lokeren-Temse 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Corenthyn Lavie has his answer from Francs Borains; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Philipp Wydra is on it.
“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 Francs Borains, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Fosso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Francs Borains go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hossni Soye Ndime 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.
Nobody at Francs Borains 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.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Francs Borains. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Timon Vanhoutte has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Francs Borains have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Francs Borains asked and Anderlecht 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 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.
Matthias Francotte 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.
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.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
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 Francs Borains, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RFC Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Aboubacar Ali 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 RFC Liege 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 RFC Liege, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RFC Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kenta Nemoto 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 RFC Liege, and 4 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at RFC Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre-Yves Ngawa 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Aboubacar Ali has moved up it.
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 Jonathan D'Ostilio is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Francs Borains is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Fosso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hossni Soye Ndime 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.
Nobody at Francs Borains 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.
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Aboubacar Ali 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.
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 Stefano Marzo is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at RFC Liege would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Emrehan Gedikli has written the date down.
“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; RFC Liege are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Tijmen Wildeboer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Aboubacar Ali 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
5 new faces, and RFC Liege 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ryan Bakayoko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at RFC Liege 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.
11 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
In brief
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at RFC Liege
Loan watchKays Ruiz-Atil watches his loan from the bench
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason RFC Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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; RFC Liege are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at RFC Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Ali 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason RFC Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RFC Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at RFC Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Ali 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Théo Pierrot’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and RFC Liege needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason RFC Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Kenta Nemoto 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Aboubacar Ali 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 RFC Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Kenta Nemoto 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at RFC Liege, another week without a signature from Tijmen Wildeboer.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Aboubacar Ali 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Romelu Lukaku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. RFC Liege will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at RFC Liege can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at RFC Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Ali 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Romelu Lukaku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
RFC Liege had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Union SG, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. RFC Liege will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at RFC Liege can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 RFC Liege know 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 RFC Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at RFC Liege pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aboubacar Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. RFC Liege will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RFC Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
RFC Liege close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 6 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 RFC Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ryan Bakayoko
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Union SG; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. RFC Liege will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RFC Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 RFC Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aboubacar Ali is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Tijmen Wildeboer 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: RWDM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucca Lucker. The answer from RFC Liege has not changed — yet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Francs Borains will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Cercle Brugge for Mathias Fixelles 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Francs Borains can pretend not to have heard.
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 Francs Borains have had the benefit of it.
Everything agreed with Olympic Charleroi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: RFC Liege have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aboubacar Ali. The answer from Francs Borains has not changed — yet.
Massimo Bruno 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Francs Borains is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RFC Liege lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. RFC Liege will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 RFC Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RFC Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: KV Kortrijk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eric N'Jo. The answer from RFC Liege has not changed — yet.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexis de Sart's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Francs Borains training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Diliberto 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.
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Francs Borains 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: Kawasaki Frontale keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$180.0K on the table at Dender. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$81.0K on the table at KV Kortrijk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Francs Borains offered $85.0K; Patro Eisden said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Aboubacar Ali 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jordy Soladio. 2‑0 against Lokeren-Temse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jordy Soladio at his very best