Marked for Dimitri Colau
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waasland-Beveren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Nov 2028
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Kyan Vaesen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Waasland-Beveren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jayden Onia Seke 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Waasland-Beveren can tell you which week it ends in.
Match11 Nov 2028
0‑1 to Francs Borains, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 Charles Courtois to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Waasland-Beveren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Kyan Vaesen 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
1‑3 to Patro Eisden, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jayden Onia Seke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch2 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Westerlo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waasland-Beveren and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Alouis Diriken
“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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Patro Eisden held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Waasland-Beveren answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad2 Oct 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jarne Lafosse 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Waasland-Beveren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match23 Sep 2028
0‑4 against RSCA Futures, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Serxho Ujka 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 Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Waasland-Beveren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyan Vaesen 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad25 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and Waasland-Beveren 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Dimitri Colau gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dimitri Colau has just signed for Waasland-Beveren, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dante Rigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Time is catching up with Laurent Jans
Everybody at Waasland-Beveren saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
He is 23 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chris Lokesa. 2‑0 against Lokeren-Temse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market13 Mar 2028
Ilian Hadidi is 19, and Waasland-Beveren 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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.” Charles Courtois, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.