Eupen and Westerlo have settled on $1.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $79.6K — a club that wants Louis Fortin enough to be asked twice.
Sint-Truiden paid $860.0K and Eupen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$72.0K 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.
Eupen 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Eupen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kikas 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Eupen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Théo Maréchal has his answer from Eupen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Kikas 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Merveille Bokadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Eupen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rune Paeshuyse trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott Kennedy 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Eupen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Eupen 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 Eupen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kikas 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Scott Kennedy 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 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. 9 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eupen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jong Gent in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
51 points from position 4. 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 Sander Coopman has written the date down.
“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 Eupen, 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 Eupen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Eupen know it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Kasper. 1‑0 against Beerschot, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merveille Bokadi 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 long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Eupen know now that the thought has arrived.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Eupen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Eupen, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The deal that would have taken Zakaria Atteri to Zulte Waregem has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Eupen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Kikas 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.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Eupen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Eupen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Eupen can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with RFC Liege, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Kikas 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then RSCA Futures scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eupen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Eupen 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Scott Kennedy 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 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Daniel Kasper scored in the 88th minute, RFC Liege had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Eupen took the lot.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Logan Delaurier-Chaubet and Eupen agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eupen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Scott Kennedy 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
100 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Leo Kokubo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Eupen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eupen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Eupen is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I watch every Eupen 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Eupen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rune Paeshuyse has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sint-Truiden this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Sint-Truiden is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sint-Truiden, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Keisuke Goto
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Jo Coppens: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The deal with Eupen 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Eupen is saying, and nobody at Sint-Truiden is enjoying the guessing.
Sint-Truiden asked and Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑2 to Antwerp, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Aug 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 Leander Vanaken left the room before anybody could ask which.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Daniel Kasper will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Eupen escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sint-Truiden had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Eupen can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $136.5K — a club that wants Martin Delavallée enough to be asked twice.
Kikas 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.
The offer went to Charleroi 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.
$120.0K was the most the club would pay and Charleroi 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.
Eupen 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.
Daniel Kasper 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.
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.
“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 Eupen know it.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.