1‑2 against FC Midtjylland, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A brace, and Josh Cullen takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josh Cullen provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Standard Liege heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Cullen 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 goal that put FC Midtjylland ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Standard Liege equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Carlos Forbs will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Standard Liege escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Romelu Openda 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 easiest signature of my career.” Eden Meunier and Standard Liege agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Cullen 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.
Club Brugge 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Axel Mertens has his answer from Standard Liege; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutNordin Jackers dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutAdnan Chadli has become a man the manager trusts
10 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.
3‑1 against Hammarby, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Romelu Openda was at the centre of the description.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Romelu Openda 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Cullen 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Eden Meunier
Player ratingsSylvester Jasper was on a different afternoon to everybody else
7 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 25 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noë Dussenne will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Standard Liege the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Standard Liege heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Heerenveen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 23 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.
Romelu Openda 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Genk is saying, and nobody at Standard Liege is enjoying the guessing.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Josh Cullen has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
6‑3, and Romelu Openda took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Standard Liege tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
A brace, and Dennis Ayensa takes the afternoon — 9.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dennis Ayensa provided it, and the 9.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
At 22 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Standard Liege arrived with $2.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KV Oostende
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him 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 KV Oostende, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jovany Ikanga has, at KV Oostende, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Adnan Chadli has gone, the accounts have $2.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christian Chadli is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wolfgang Roth 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basel have kept their man, and KV Oostende go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutJetro Willems knocks on the manager’s door
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Standard Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Standard Liege offered $10.4M; Charleroi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Genk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The name of Dennis Ayensa has come up in conversations Standard Liege were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The name of Adnan Chadli has come up in conversations KV Oostende were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
KV Oostende have made the call to Wolfsberger AC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
“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.
Standard Liege asked and Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to KV Oostende 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.
Romelu Openda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josh Cullen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Standard Liege will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
7 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.
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 Josh Cullen is on it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Westerlo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Juan Camilo Quiñonez has agreed terms with KV Mechelen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The shirt still fits. Charles Januzaj is back at KV Oostende, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Adnan Witsel 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ilias Splinter has just signed for KV Oostende, and for once the answer mattered.
The deal with Waasland-Beveren is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
KV Oostende had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at OGC Nice, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas De Bruyne and KV Oostende agree another 5 years.
Nacim El Hassani 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 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 offer from Racing Genk for Adnan Chadli 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.
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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gabriel Otegbayo 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Oostende can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
KV Oostende have made the call to Club Brugge. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Wolfgang Roth exposed
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. KV Oostende had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende 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 Jason De Ketelaere was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Christophe Janssens may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Wolfgang Roth 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KV Oostende is running low.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Wolfgang Roth 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.
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.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jetro Willems’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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 KV Oostende, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Wolfgang Roth 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.
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.
Marouane Bekkour is 19, and KV Oostende have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation KV Oostende are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Something was said to Marouane Bekkour and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
3 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.
1‑1 against Sporting CP, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Oostende can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wolfgang Roth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 110. Sporting CP had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
Amos Nondi 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Wolfgang Roth 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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Nacim El Hassani.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Oostende is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Bates 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.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑1 against Sporting CP. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Adnan Chadli 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.
Adnan Witsel 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jetro Willems.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Nil Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Feb 2028
5 new faces, and KV Oostende 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Michaël Heylen
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 33 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jason De Ketelaere provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
“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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
16 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Wolfgang Roth 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Eden Witsel has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
Player ratingsAdnan Witsel beats them one at a time
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 whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
Wolfgang Roth had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and KAA Gent were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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.
Amos Nondi 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.
KV Oostende 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.
13 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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.
$1.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KV Oostende
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
He is going to Standard Liege, the club has $1.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Oostende have done the hard part with Westerlo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
4 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Adnan Chadli 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Oostende have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Otegbayo 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.
A conversation is coming this week. KV Oostende will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Nil Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Axel Meunier
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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. KV Oostende will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KV Oostende is running low.
Wolfgang Roth 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Waasland-Beveren were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A 1‑0 win over Waasland-Beveren, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Nacer Boyata for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. KV Oostende will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eden Kompany will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Oostende the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ahmed Abdullahi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nil Cortés has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Stambouli and KV Oostende agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
9 goals in one match, Adnan Chadli on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KV Oostende and Standard Liege.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at KV Oostende has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
1‑6 against Monaco. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KV Oostende is running low.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between KV Oostende and Monaco, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Gabriel Otegbayo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Racing Genk had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
A brace, and Adnan Witsel takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adnan Witsel provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
8.01. 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Azamoum, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 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.” Nil Cortés, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Something was said to Karim Azamoum and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
OH Leuven will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. KV Oostende were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Nil Cortés could afford to be generous.
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and KV Oostende came through the finding-out well against DAC Dunajska Streda.
Wolfgang Roth 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adnan Chadli. 2‑0 against Zulte Waregem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Position 13, 14 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Sebastián Sierra and KV Oostende agree another 4 years.
The mood at KV Oostende has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Wolfgang Roth 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 Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nil Cortés to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Jetro Willems
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.
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and KV Oostende came through the finding-out well against DAC Dunajska Streda.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Christophe Janssens will call it something else in private.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Bates 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Oostende has been clear about where Hakim El Mokeddem stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Stambouli and KV Oostende agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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.
Gabriel Otegbayo 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
Player ratingsWolfgang Roth was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsJason De Ketelaere was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Jetro Willems
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eden Kompany will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Oostende the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at KV Oostende pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
0‑3 to Waasland-Beveren, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KV Oostende can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nil Cortés after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The mood at KV Oostende has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around KV Oostende are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at KV Oostende until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
KV Oostende had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cádiz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Youri Meunier has, at KV Oostende, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Wolfgang Roth 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KV Oostende can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jetro Willems
KV Oostende 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.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around KV Oostende are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Oostende is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Oostende have done the hard part with Wycombe Wanderers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Wolfsberger AC is saying, and nobody at KV Oostende is enjoying the guessing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leander De Ketelaere is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jetro Willems 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.
KV Oostende asked and Derby County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deal with Wolfsberger AC is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
David Bates 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“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 KV Oostende know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Karim Azamoum
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Wolfgang Roth 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KV Oostende and Lokeren in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Three points for KV Oostende, 4‑2 the final word against Lokeren in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Jetro Willems 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Oostende they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Wolfsberger AC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at KV Oostende
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Adnan Chadli 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michy Januzaj is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Charles Onana 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jason Mertens 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Wolfgang Roth 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 watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Nil Cortés made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
“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.
Zayd El Kandoussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
Wolfsberger AC 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.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Benjamin Stambouli has taken the hint, and KV Oostende are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation KV Oostende are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
41 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Adnan Chadli 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 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 KV Oostende know it.
“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 Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eden Kompany will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Oostende the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leander De Ketelaere is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
KV Oostende asked and Juventus 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 Adnan Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
KV Oostende asked and Blackburn Rovers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Axel Meunier has come up in conversations KV Oostende were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cádiz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Roda for Adnan Witsel 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at KV Oostende hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
13 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alquimedes Peralta has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means KV Oostende have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Oostende lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 15 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Oostende have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The phone has started ringing about Jason De Ketelaere again, and this time the name on the line is Cádiz. KV Oostende are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Napoli is saying, and nobody at KV Oostende is enjoying the guessing.
The mood at KV Oostende has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Barrios is living that version at KV Oostende, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 May 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
David Bates 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.
Ivan Barrios is 20, and KV Oostende have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Oostende. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnan Chadli 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 KV Oostende know it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and David Bates has written the date down.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Adnan Chadli 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.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Benjamin Stambouli keeps the shirt for now, at KV Oostende's convenience rather than his own.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zayd El Kandoussi signs something — a contract at KV Oostende or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Oostende lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Chadli 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leander De Ketelaere is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 KV Oostende can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Juan Camilo Quiñonez has written the date down.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
0‑3 to Mouscron, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Jason Vanaken recited it perfectly.
KV Oostende had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Free State Stars, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.