The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Westerlo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eliot Bujupi 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 Pablo Oro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Westerlo 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.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcelo Esponda wants continental football; whether Westerlo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from David Boly.
Nobody at Westerlo 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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Westerlo could ask drops and the wages Joe Johnson can ask rise.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad7 May 2035
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 May 2035
6 new faces, and Westerlo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Besfort Zeneli's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
In brief
The dugoutEliot Bujupi knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Westerlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Besfort Zeneli 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 Westerlo know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Westerlo now know that too.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joe Johnson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 Apr 2035
Eliot Bujupi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Oro, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Apr 2035
8 new faces, and Westerlo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from Pablo Oro.
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 David Boly is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Westerlo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stijn Bultman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Westerlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Besfort Zeneli 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 Westerlo know 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.
Position 11 on 34 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Westerlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from David Boly.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Westerlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adnan Nainggolan is living that version at Westerlo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Besfort Zeneli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Westerlo asked and Standard Liege 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maxime Delanghe 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 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 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 Westerlo know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from Noa Skoko.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Westerlo 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.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Muhammadali O'rinboyev. 2‑1 against Standard Liege, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.12. 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gonzalo Aquilino has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Westerlo.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Westerlo can tell you which week it ends in.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rúben Cardoso has, at Westerlo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Besfort Zeneli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsDavid Boly did the work nobody counts — 7.35
“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 Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lewis Jamieson has pre-agreed a move to Westerlo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Westerlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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.
Westerlo asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Westerlo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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.
KAA Gent will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Axel Carrasco has pre-agreed a move to Westerlo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Westerlo 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.
“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; Westerlo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Gabriel Djondo is on 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 Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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 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 Westerlo know it.
Westerlo asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Westerlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 Besfort Zeneli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Westerlo asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Westerlo 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and Westerlo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A loan enquiry to Standard Liege: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Charleroi 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.
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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Westerlo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Standard Liege have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Westerlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 May 2034
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Besfort Zeneli 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Westerlo have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.