“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 The request is on a desk at OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
OH Leuven close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 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.
OH Leuven asked and Juventude said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilguens Paugain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Joël Drommel's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vanspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Standard Liege next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Marked 6.77 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thibaud Verlinden signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aaron Murenzi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OH Leuven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at OH Leuven has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutManuel Osifo knocks on the manager's door
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Henok Teklab and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thomas Doku on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Birger Verstraete scored, was marked 7.53, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OH Leuven 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.
8.20. 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.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
$9.7M on the table at Gil Vicente. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
OH Leuven 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.
14 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.
“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 OH Leuven, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Thomas Doku, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union SG have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Youri Openda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Toby Boyata has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Toby De Bruyne has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kevin Carrasco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ewoud Pletinckx's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.