Marked for Adnan Tielemans
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Club Brugge for Adnan Tielemans was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
KV Oostende sell a favourite for $6.7M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Zinho Tielemans was one of the reasons people came, and $6.7M does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at KV Oostende, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Oostende have done the hard part with KV Kortrijk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
KV Oostende had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fenerbahce, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Simon Carrasco 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Standard Liege have gone to Al-Ittihad 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 targets24 Aug 2026
$4.0M settles it between the clubs for Adnan Tielemans
KV Oostende have accepted the money. What Standard Liege do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to FC Tokyo 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Standard Liege spend $6.7M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $6.7M has been paid because Zinho Tielemans is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Krasnodar wanted more than $6.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dedryck Vertonghen has just signed for Standard Liege, and for once the answer mattered.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Standard Liege's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Standard Liege has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Toby Alderweireld and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Zulte Waregem paid $630.0K and Standard Liege took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Racing Genk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Oostende is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Stade Rennais for Charles Lukaku was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. KV Oostende have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simon Batshuayi commits to KV Oostende for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to KV Mechelen 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Zinho Tielemans scored one and made one — 7.91
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.91, and 2 involvements.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Carrasco 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.