Marked for Romelu Witsel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Sep 2026
Lokeren refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 15 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Romelu Tielemans: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Charles Doku at 20 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Charles Doku did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Michy Lukaku in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dries Witsel’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lokeren.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
Lokeren come up short in Europe
2‑4 away to the standard of AZ. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Michy Lukaku takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michy Lukaku provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Romelu Witsel, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Michy Lukaku 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Michy Lukaku among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Michy Lukaku on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Lokeren and AZ.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Meunier 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Michy Lukaku’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lokeren.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Charles Doku 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Timothy Meunier 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market14 Sep 2026
Trento are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Lokeren will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Lokeren say no — this time
The offer from KV Oostende for Nacer Mertens 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lokeren, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Radja De Ketelaere 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑2 to KAA Gent, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Dries Witsel
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dries Witsel has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lokeren have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles De Bruyne 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Aug 2026
Lokeren bow out of the cup
Racing Genk go through and Lokeren go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market31 Aug 2026
Lokeren say no — this time
The offer from KAA Gent for Christian Onana 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Timothy Meunier 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Mignolet, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Michy Lukaku has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lokeren 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. OH Leuven defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
A 3-goal lead gone for Lokeren
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Zulte Waregem kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Lokeren will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
Club Brugge come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Michy Lukaku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Onana 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michaël Heylen, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
KV Mechelen come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michy Lukaku commits to Lokeren for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Michy Lukaku in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Timothy Meunier 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Lokeren, 1‑0 the final word against KV Kortrijk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: KV Oostende have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Radja Lukaku. The answer from Lokeren has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Romelu Castagne, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Michy Lukaku did the work nobody counts — 7.81
10 combined actions and 7.81. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.