Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alan has just signed for Anderlecht, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Anderlecht and a story that will outlast his contract.
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.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A 1‑0 win over Olympic Charleroi, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
116 minutes played. Terry Van De Ven found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Olympic Charleroi went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Randal Kolo Muani. 3‑1 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Cheick Keita 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokeren-Temse had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Anderlecht asked and Waasland-Beveren said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Stroeykens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayumu Yokoyama 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.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Stassin has, at Anderlecht, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Lucas Stassin was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $13.2M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Toby Fellaini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“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 Anderlecht, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Marcos Antonio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anderlecht told Adriano Bertaccini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Anderlecht 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.
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 Enzo Sternal has written the date down.
Position 5, 51 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anderlecht they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 19 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.
Squad15 May 2028
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Anderlecht that is a harder question to answer.
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 Alexis Flips has written the date down.
In brief
BoardroomThe Anderlecht production line keeps running
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ilay Camara
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marcos Antonio 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.
“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 Anderlecht, and 5 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Colin Coosemans is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Terry Van De Ven is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Anderlecht 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.
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 Fedde Leysen has written the date down.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nobody at Anderlecht 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Terry Van De Ven trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 5, 51 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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 Enric Llansana has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriano Bertaccini signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Anderlecht have no good answer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fedde Leysen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
28 appearances and 14 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Anderlecht 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 5 on 51 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Enric Llansana 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raheem Sterling. 2‑0 against RWDM, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Anderlecht pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
At 19 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.
Marked 6.53 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hicham Khaloua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marcos Antonio 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.
Anderlecht ran out of time with Antwerp. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
7 goals in one match, Randal Kolo Muani on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Anderlecht and Cercle Brugge.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan Rasheed has just signed for Anderlecht, and for once the answer mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren-Temse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Florian Le Joncour 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.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Terry Van De Ven. 1‑0 against RFC Liege, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hicham Khaloua 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 clubs have shaken hands with Antwerp; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Anderlecht heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lommel have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Anderlecht can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Stroeykens 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.
Club Brugge arrived with $2.4M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $763.1K of what Lokeren-Temse paid for Mamadou Barry is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
Mamadou Barry has gone, the accounts have $2.4M 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Lokeren-Temse 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.
Florian Le Joncour 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Niels Verburgh is living that version at Lokeren-Temse, and it tends to show in the first month.
Lokeren-Temse asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hicham Khaloua provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Terry Van De Ven did not need any: 8.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Lokeren-Temse know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and Lokeren-Temse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Juventus 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anderlecht have lost him in all but the paperwork.
5 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Antonio wants continental football; whether Anderlecht can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marcos Antonio 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.
Club Brugge will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kyriani Sabbe has pre-agreed a move to Anderlecht, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
11 goals in 20 games at Lokeren-Temse — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Anderlecht updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Union SG keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Lokeren-Temse asked and OH Leuven said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren-Temse is running low.
Florian Le Joncour 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 phone has started ringing about Sebastiaan Brebels again, and this time the name on the line is Lommel. Lokeren-Temse are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Lokeren-Temse will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokeren-Temse, another week without a signature from Michaël Heylen.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Lokeren-Temse
Transfer targetsA loan move for Steve N'Goura is in the works
Marcos Antonio 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.
Union SG next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Anderlecht had all but put away. RAAL La Louviere will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Terry Van De Ven provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Toon Janssen is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florian Le Joncour trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leander De Ketelaere was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Lokeren-Temse dressing room was either.
In brief
SquadJérôme Arens falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fedde Leysen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 Adriano Bertaccini is on it.
6 goals in 17 games at Lokeren-Temse — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Anderlecht updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Patro Eisden spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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 Lokeren-Temse, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Position 9, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Leander De Ketelaere could afford to be generous.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Anisse Brrou
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.
Terry Van De Ven, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren-Temse 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 Lokeren-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hicham Khaloua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Florian Le Joncour 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 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 dugout6 Dec 2027
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 0‑1 Leander De Ketelaere left the room before anybody could ask which.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
93% of the income goes out in wages at Lokeren-Temse
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérôme Arens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Terry Van De Ven trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not go to Olympic Charleroi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Anderlecht and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
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 Adriano Bertaccini is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Anderlecht, another week without a signature from Ludwig Augustinsson.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Anderlecht would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriano Bertaccini signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Terry Van De Ven is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokeren-Temse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Arens 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Alain Matoka is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Vancy Mabanza is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokeren-Temse would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A side in position 5 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Yanis Musuayi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokeren-Temse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Arens 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.
Marcos Antonio 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.
“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.
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 Anderlecht 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.
9 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Anderlecht that is a harder question to answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. RAAL La Louviere moved on, Tein Troost reports back to Lokeren-Temse, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 Lokeren-Temse, and it is not being withdrawn.
Florian Le Joncour 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union SG have kept their man, and Lokeren-Temse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
At 19 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. OH Leuven moved on, Maxime Pau reports back to Lokeren-Temse, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Florian Le Joncour and Lokeren-Temse agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Florian Le Joncour 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 words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Antwerp go through and Lokeren-Temse go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The offer from KV Mechelen for Tein Troost 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.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokeren-Temse people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Jonas Vinck has gone, the accounts have $390.0K 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.
Stan Van Dessel 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.
Beerschot paid $390.0K and Lokeren-Temse took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Terry Van De Ven. 1‑0 against Patro Eisden, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Sam Van Aerschot again, and this time the name on the line is Beerschot. Lokeren-Temse are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iñaki Elejalde 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 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.