Marked for Xander Dierckx
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Racing Genk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every Antwerp game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at KV Mechelen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dries Doku after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yllan Okou 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Rein Van Helden has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Antwerp 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Marwan Al-Sahafi
Nobody at Antwerp is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
The pass was always on for Gyrano Kerk
Chances created: 6. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Antwerp
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Antwerp
Glenn Bijl 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Antwerp
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daam Foulon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“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 Antwerp, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Daam Foulon
7.31, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Antwerp had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dries Doku was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Antwerp dressing room was either.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Sho Araki
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thérence Koudou is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Myron Boadu gets it from the manager
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Fredrik Hammar is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Mechelen has been clear about where Fredrik Hammar stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured for Rio Ngumoha
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Mechelen told Rio Ngumoha something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“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 Mechelen, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Benito Raman has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Fredrik Hammar 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 KV Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Benito Raman story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Benito Raman signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jason Denayer 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad28 Sep 2026
30 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to KV Mechelen to sit and watch. I want to come back to Antwerp and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.65 on the card, and the Antwerp support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Dries Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Antwerp
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Club Brugge.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Taishi Brandon Nozawa, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. KV Mechelen will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to KV Kortrijk 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
An offer of $820.0K for Yllan Okou
Antwerp have gone to RAAL La Louviere with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Antwerp had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Paris FC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Antwerp 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Antwerp
Yuto Tsunashima 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Antwerp have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Antwerp
6 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
The weekend belonged to Gyrano Kerk
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Match
Point won or two lost for Antwerp?
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
Club Brugge come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KV Mechelen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $800.0K — a club that wants Mohammed El Âdfaoui enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
KV Mechelen offered $760.0K; KAA Gent said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
José Marsà 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Dender left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.