Hamidou Kante 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Denilho Cleonise has come out of that comparison in the side, and Cercle Brugge have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
7 goals in 26 games at RKC Waalwijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cercle Brugge updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Cercle Brugge 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 Ibrahim Diakité has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cercle Brugge 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 Raul Florucz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Cercle Brugge 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cercle Brugge will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Raul Florucz signs something — a contract at Cercle Brugge or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cercle Brugge, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Cercle Brugge would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Words at Cercle Brugge training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Florucz 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.
Hannes Van Der Bruggen 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jason Januzaj after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Benito Raman’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cercle Brugge needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Frank Feller 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Benito Raman 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 easiest signature of my career.” Dalangunypole Gomis and Cercle Brugge agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Florucz 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 Cercle Brugge know it.
5 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.
Something was said to Mohamed Fofana and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Charleroi next, and one man in the Cercle Brugge dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cercle Brugge, another week without a signature from Ibrahim Diakité.
In brief
The dugoutSam Hendriks knocks on the manager's door
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Raul Florucz will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cercle Brugge escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Racing Genk moved on, Ibrahim Diakité reports back to Cercle Brugge, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christiaan Ravych and Cercle Brugge agree another 3 years.
Christiaan Ravych 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 Cercle Brugge training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Florucz 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 needed Raul Florucz to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against RAAL La Louviere, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cercle Brugge 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 Cercle Brugge, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cercle Brugge this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Raul Florucz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cercle Brugge are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Joachim Imbrechts 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Amavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Krys Kouassi and Cercle Brugge agree another 4 years.
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.