It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Red Star this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Durivaux trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Red Star this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Saïf-Eddine Khaoui keeps the shirt for now, at Red Star's convenience rather than his own.
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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adrian Van Rumst is a Waasland-Beveren player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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.
He is 19, and nobody at Waasland-Beveren signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Waasland-Beveren deserved better, and so did he.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.