Marked for Joël-Anthony Keptoukoua
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RWDM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at RWDM
Fabien Centonze 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Patro Eisden to sit and watch. I want to come back to RWDM and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Nov 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Bill Lathouwers asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RWDM will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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 Matteo Vandendaele is on it.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Fréderic Soelle Soelle keeps appearing in other people's back pages. RWDM say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Sep 2027
11 unbeaten for RWDM
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation RWDM did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 7.80 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at RWDM
Fabien Centonze 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at RWDM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Epolo 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Three points for RWDM, 1‑0 the final word against Francs Borains in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edwin Laszo, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joël-Anthony Keptoukoua and RWDM agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market20 Sep 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
Edwin Laszo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Sep 2027
Add another name to the list: Racing Genk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fréderic Soelle Soelle. The answer from RWDM has not changed — yet.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 29 signed and 23 gone
That is the business done at RWDM until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market6 Sep 2027
KV Kortrijk come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and RWDM did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Ayman Kassimi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ayman Kassimi has just signed for RWDM, and for once the answer mattered.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers go at RWDM
Alessio Castro-Montes 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at RWDM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Epolo 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
RWDM asked and Lokeren-Temse said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. RWDM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at RWDM
Fabien Centonze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at RWDM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bill Lathouwers 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valladolid have kept their man, and RWDM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joël-Anthony Keptoukoua commits to RWDM for another 4 years.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Ali Loune
“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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Anan Khalaili knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RWDM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at RWDM would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Match19 Jul 2027
RWDM in the hunt for Europe
Position 5, 44 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Bill Lathouwers
“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 watch3 May 2027
12 goals in 30 games at ESTAC Troyes — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at RWDM updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad3 May 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 RWDM know it.
Squad3 May 2027
Ali Loune 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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I did not go to Eupen to sit and watch. I want to come back to RWDM and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Xavier Preijs
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Xavier Preijs has come out of that comparison in the side, and RWDM have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Loan watch3 May 2027
30 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch3 May 2027
14 appearances at RKC Waalwijk and the goals keep coming. RWDM are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Apr 2027
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Tempers go at RWDM
Carlo Boukhalfa 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bill Lathouwers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
Match26 Apr 2027
RWDM have something to play for
Position 5 on 44 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Market26 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RWDM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at RWDM
Carlo Boukhalfa 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joël-Anthony Keptoukoua is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edwin Laszo commits to RWDM for another 3 years.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at RWDM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Loune was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mats Lemmens’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and RWDM needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Match29 Mar 2027
Continental football is in reach for RWDM
40 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
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The dugout
Daniel Quiñónes knocks on the manager’s door
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Looking ahead
Home comforts ahead for RWDM
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match26 Dec 2026
At last: RWDM win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Patro Eisden. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match26 Dec 2026
7 unbeaten for RWDM
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation RWDM did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at RWDM
Yacouba Barry 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over Patro Eisden, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
RWDM supporters have found a favourite in Bilal Sanhaji
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bilal Sanhaji 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.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
17 appearances at ESTAC Troyes and the goals keep coming. RWDM are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at RWDM
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bilal Sanhaji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RWDM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at RWDM
David Bates 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at RWDM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Loune 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured for David Bates
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. RWDM told David Bates something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Jacob Montes knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RWDM, and both men came out saying it was fine.