Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. James Ndjeungoue will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Kortrijk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KV Kortrijk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Kruiver was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout30 Dec 2030
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 Timothy Lukaku left the room before anybody could ask which.
Club Brugge next, and one man in the KV Kortrijk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
9 appearances at HamKam and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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 The request is on a desk at HamKam, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HamKam, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at HamKam would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
40 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HamKam they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sakarias Opsahl 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Interim Coach leaves with $41.4K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. HamKam told Lucca Brughmans something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HamKam can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HamKam this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HamKam can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Osifo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Kortrijk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphaël Lipinski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HamKam lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at HamKam heard it as anything else.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Martin Gjone 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.
At 22 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. HamKam told Mikkel Ceïde something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
SquadWords at HamKam training over how hard people work
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 HamKam, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HamKam they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sakarias Opsahl 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 Martin Gjone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“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 HamKam, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HamKam have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sakarias Opsahl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words at HamKam training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Gjone 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brondby have kept their man, and HamKam go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
BoardroomHamKam pay $689.0K to end the manager's contract
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mjondalen is saying, and nobody at HamKam is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
HamKam close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 14 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.
4 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.
Sakarias Opsahl 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mouad El Fanis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Halvor Opsahl
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Brann waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Kortrijk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Kortrijk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nils Mortimer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Kortrijk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Kortrijk have done the hard part with Anderlecht, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Genk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union SG have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cercle Brugge had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KV Kortrijk have kept their man, and Racing Genk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leander Meunier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Kortrijk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rocco Ascone, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Lipinski 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 KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Dennis Ayensa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Union SG said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Marko Ilić is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk 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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Kortrijk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Racing Genk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sixtus Ogbuehi. The answer from KV Kortrijk has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Genk is saying, and nobody at KV Kortrijk is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Lipinski 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk 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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Kortrijk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Dennis Ayensa again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. KV Kortrijk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Kruiver was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KV Kortrijk have made the call to Racing Genk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The name of Dennis Ayensa has come up in conversations KV Kortrijk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Kortrijk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nils Mortimer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
28 appearances at Levski and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Dennis Ayensa 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 Jay Kruiver was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Abubakar Abdullahi arrives at KV Kortrijk with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Nils Mortimer’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Mellon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 May 2030
Akram Bouras 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.
David Valverde 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 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 Levski know it.
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 Bernard Tekpetey is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Mellon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 3, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Levski they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Levski can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akram Bouras 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.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Levski 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levski, and both men came out saying it was fine.
28 appearances at Levski and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Jaydon Banel 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 Zeno Van Den Bosch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 KV Kortrijk know 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 Mohamed Koné 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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 KV Kortrijk hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
28 appearances at Levski and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Jaydon Banel 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
18 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Levski. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Daan Heymans 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jayden Meghoma 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
17 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Lucca Brughmans has been having a lot of them.
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.
Ryan Merlen 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Martín Bonilla 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.
200 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. KV Kortrijk will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Samed Baždar scored in the 88th minute, Lierse had already begun thinking about the journey home, and KV Kortrijk took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 shut-outs in 23 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Lucca Brughmans has been having a lot of them.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at KV Kortrijk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Rudy Kohon.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
9 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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Kortrijk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 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.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KV Kortrijk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Jan 2030
After 10 games, KV Kortrijk finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against RAAL La Louviere; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The chase for David Mukuna ended with $1.1M changing hands and Antwerp out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Dennis Ayensa 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at KV Kortrijk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Rudy Kohon.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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 words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Ryan Merlen 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.
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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Kruiver 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.
12 shut-outs in 19 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Lucca Brughmans has been having a lot of them.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Dennis Ayensa 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 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.
11 clean sheets from 17 appearances at Levski. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and KV Kortrijk know which stage they are at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Radostin Stoilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marto Boychev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armstrong Oko-Flex 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 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 Levski 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Loan watchLucca Brughmans’s loan is measured in nothing happening
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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Levski who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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.
Something was said to Oliver Kamdem and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Ryan Merlen, marked 7.90, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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 KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ryan Merlen. 1‑0 against Club NXT, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Kortrijk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Timothy Lukaku could afford to be generous.
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.
In brief
Loan watchLucca Brughmans’s loan is measured in nothing happening
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at KV Kortrijk, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. KV Kortrijk have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Samed Baždar
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Samed Baždar has come out of that comparison in the side, and KV Kortrijk have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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.” Timothy Lukaku chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
12 appearances at Levski and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every 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 Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filipe Silva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armstrong Oko-Flex 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Todor Chochev 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.
8.25. 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Levski dressing room in a hurry
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zeno Van Den Bosch 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Marko Ilić is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
RFC Liege next, and one man in the KV Kortrijk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Kortrijk would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Lucca Brughmans is the division's best young player this month
At 21 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. Levski will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Montana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Levski is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stipe Vulikić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa for Mehdi Moubarik 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.
“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; Levski are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Stipe Vulikić 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kristian Dimitrov commits to Levski for another 3 years.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicon 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botev Vratsa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Levski is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stipe Vulikić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maicon 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aldair Faustino 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.
Levski have made the call to KV Kortrijk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Levski have made the call to Spartakos Kitiou. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Kortrijk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Cosenza for Jayden Meghoma 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Kortrijk heard it as anything else.
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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Lipinski 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.
In brief
BoardroomKV Kortrijk release $4.4M for the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Kortrijk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Sint-Truiden, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
$1.9M settles it between the clubs for Ryan Merlen
Sint-Truiden have accepted the money. What KV Kortrijk do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Olympic 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.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$6.8M on the table at Sint-Truiden. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$610.0K on the table at Racing Genk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Lierse have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucca Brughmans. The answer from KV Kortrijk has not changed — yet.
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.
Jay Kruiver 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kobe Cools
Transfer targetsA loan move for Shion Shinkawa is in the works
The dugoutLenn De Smet asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. KV Kortrijk had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. João Luiz has, at KV Kortrijk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Lipinski 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 KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Ilan Hurtevent is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Kortrijk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Lenn De Smet damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
21 shut-outs in 31 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Lucca Brughmans has been having a lot of them.
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 KV Kortrijk know it.
Lenn De Smet damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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 KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphaël Lipinski 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 Bastian Allgeier trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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 Kobe Cools has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Waasland-Beveren 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 Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Tomoya Fujii 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 new man at Waasland-Beveren has worked with Luc Mares before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Waasland-Beveren, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
31 appearances at Waasland-Beveren and the goals have stopped going in. KV Kortrijk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jay Kruiver has just signed for KV Kortrijk, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Lipinski 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.
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.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
20 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Waasland-Beveren. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphaël Lipinski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raphaël Lipinski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Kortrijk would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
José Caldera 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 new man at Waasland-Beveren has worked with Luc Mares before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Something was said to Alexis Flips and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
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 Dedryck Castagne left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
20 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Lucca Brughmans has been having a lot of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphaël Lipinski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. KV Kortrijk will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ritchy Valmé will call it something else in private.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.