Marked for Rafael Devisate
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Laurent Alderweireld has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Union SG did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Union SG people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 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 The request is on a desk at Union SG, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Besfort Zeneli has come up in conversations Union SG were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Steve N'Goura and Union SG agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Kevin Mac Allister 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Union SG asked and Seraing said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“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; Union SG are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at Union SG, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Pep Biel signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pep Biel and Union SG agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kevin Mac Allister 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“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 Union SG know it.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I watch every Union SG game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Francs Borains runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Rafael Devisate damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Nikolas Sattlberger 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union SG, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Ivan Pavlić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Union SG 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Louis Patris’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Rafael Devisate damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Union SG may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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 Union SG know it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Union SG
Ivan Pavlić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Union SG training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Sattlberger 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Rob Schoofs gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Mac Allister trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Marc Giger’s exile
8 goals in 26 games at Olympic Charleroi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Union SG updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Rafael Devisate damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
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.
Market15 Mar 2027
Business is business: Promise David goes
Valerenga paid $20.9M and Union SG took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
Promise David has gone, the accounts have $20.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union SG can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Union SG
Ross Sykes 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Union SG
Something was said to Mohammed Fuseini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Pavlić
“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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Marc Giger’s exile
7 goals in 25 games at Olympic Charleroi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Union SG updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Ross Sykes 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 Ross Sykes is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Union SG have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match30 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Union SG
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Union SG are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Union SG and Antwerp have settled on $33.0K. 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Union SG close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Union SG asked and Francs Borains said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Union SG
Steve N'Goura and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: Napredak have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Pavlić. The answer from Union SG has not changed — yet.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for Union SG, 1‑0 the final word against Zulte Waregem in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ross Sykes 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 Union SG this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hervé Koffi slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hervé Koffi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union SG can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Laurent Alderweireld on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Union SG training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anan Khalaili 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Union SG
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Pep Biel
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Union SG
Kevin Mac Allister and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Union SG know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Union SG 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Hervé Koffi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kjell Scherpen named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kjell Scherpen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Laurent Alderweireld chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anan Khalaili, and the manager let it.