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 at Olympique de Marseille 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympique de Marseille know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Pulisic 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.
10 goals in 32 games at Genoa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympique de Marseille updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Olympique de Marseille will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Nobody at Olympique de Marseille 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Jérôme Muller chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympique de Marseille know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Pulisic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Christian Pulisic is on it.
It needed Enzo Loiodice to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Paris Saint-Germain, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jérôme Muller after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Zinho Januzaj 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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Olympique de Marseille will try again when the window opens; Chamois Niortais may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Bennacer 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Olympique de Marseille will be judged on one thing only.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jérôme Muller after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Olympique de Marseille arrived with $20.2M 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Westerlo the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Mouscron will enjoy reviewing.
Zinho Januzaj has gone, the accounts have $20.2M 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
FC Nantes will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Olympique de Marseille were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
RC Strasbourg have accepted the money. What Olympique de Marseille do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Olympique de Marseille have paid $20.2M for Zinho Januzaj, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Olympique de Marseille asked and Braga 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 fee is $4.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AJ Auxerre drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zinho Januzaj has just signed for Olympique de Marseille, and for once the answer mattered.
Jeffrey de Lange 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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mouscron lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.45 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Mouscron have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: Olympique de Marseille have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zinho Januzaj. The answer from Mouscron has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mouscron have done the hard part with KV Kortrijk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jason Mertens 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ange Chiesa is living that version at Mouscron, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Orazio Pellegrini. 1‑0 against Waasland-Beveren, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer went to Mouscron 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and Olympique de Marseille go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The offer went to Paris FC 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.
Olympique de Marseille have gone to AJ Auxerre 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Olympique de Marseille can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsChristian Pulisic was on a different afternoon 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 Mouscron can pretend not to have heard.
Jason Mertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Zinho Januzaj 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.
KV Mechelen left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 Hans Openda left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Zinho Januzaj 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Hans Openda chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jason Mertens 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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Mouscron have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Standard Liege next, and one man in the Mouscron dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Jason Mertens 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.
A performance of 9.53 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Zinho Januzaj 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.” Hans Openda kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zulte Waregem made Mouscron work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Jason Mertens was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.” Hans Openda, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Jason Mertens 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 Zinho Januzaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Zulte Waregem next, and one man in the Mouscron dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Zinho Januzaj takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zinho Januzaj provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.05, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“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 Mouscron hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jason Mertens 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mouscron and KV Kortrijk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Mouscron 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.
10 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zinho Januzaj 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 Hans Openda to a room that had heard them before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Mouscron man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Zinho Januzaj was the best thing in any of them.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mouscron has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Zinho Januzaj takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zinho Januzaj provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jason Mertens 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.
Minute 93, against Charleroi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hans Openda after the 3‑3 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Yohan Mollo
SquadDries Januzaj falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jason Mertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zinho Januzaj 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mouscron, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Mouscron will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Kaito Verheyden is 20, and Mouscron 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.
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.
The deal that would have taken Arturo Pavone to Club Brugge has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Mouscron with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The offer went to Standard Liege 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Mouscron close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Jason Mertens 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Zinho Januzaj 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.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
$28.7M 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.
He is going to Ajax, the club has $28.7M 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mouscron can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Club Brugge have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zinho Januzaj. The answer from Mouscron has not changed — yet.
Everything agreed with Club Brugge, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jens Cools and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Mouscron spend $370.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $370.0K for Thibaud Sergeant, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.