“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RSCA Futures can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Lucas Hey 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 RSCA Futures this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and RSCA Futures will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at RSCA Futures has been clear about where Mats Rits stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutDevon De Corte asks for a word with the manager
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cedric Hatenboer 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 RSCA Futures this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anas Tajaouart trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Enzo Sternal signs something — a contract at RSCA Futures or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RSCA Futures can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at RSCA Futures training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cedric Hatenboer 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 Enzo Sternal signs something — a contract at RSCA Futures or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at RSCA Futures that is a harder question to answer.
“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 RSCA Futures, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexander De Ridder has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at RSCA Futures would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A side in position 3 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RSCA Futures this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Enzo Sternal 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; RSCA Futures are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and RSCA Futures will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
3 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
Devon De Corte, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 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.
He is 18, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 RSCA Futures, and it is not being withdrawn.
A 2‑1 win over Lokeren-Temse, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
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.
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.
Something was said to Thomas Foket and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RSCA Futures know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Alexander De Ridder has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutKaïs Barry asks for a word with the manager
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ibrahim Kanaté did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ibrahim Kanaté 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Zoumana Keita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Axel Courtois to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A RSCA Futures teenager takes the young player award
Ibrahim Kanaté is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Anas Tajaouart
The name of Mats Rits has come up in conversations RSCA Futures were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gassimou Sylla and RSCA Futures agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at RSCA Futures 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.