Marked for Thomas Witsel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Dylan Mbayo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cyril Mandouki, and the manager let it.
Market7 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Francis Kembolo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 May 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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.
Squad24 May 2027
30 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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 Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Trévis Dago, and the manager let it.
Market3 May 2027
The clock runs on Thomas Witsel's contract
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Axel Hermenier, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ylies Aradj, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Mar 2027
60 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad15 Mar 2027
André Pereira 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eden Batshuayi and KV Oostende agree another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benoît Nyssen commits to KV Oostende for another 4 years.
Market8 Mar 2027
The name of Nacer Courtois keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KV Oostende say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Adnan Courtois 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Sint-Truiden to sit and watch. I want to come back to KV Oostende and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Openda, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Bryan Adinany knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A season on the outside for André Pereira
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at KV Oostende has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Oostende know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, KV Oostende do not lose
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 2027
Kevin Mertens wants to know where this is going
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Toby De Bruyne
10 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 9.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I watch every KV Oostende game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokeren runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Youri Onana is the real thing at 18
A season average of 7.28 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. KV Oostende know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation KV Oostende did not have in the autumn.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Lokeren to sit and watch. I want to come back to KV Oostende and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Mertens, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Club Brugge came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Lokeren
15 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Yannick Fellaini: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match25 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for Lokeren
1‑1 against Club Brugge, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market30 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Nov 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Oct 2026
Charleroi left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ben Yagan gets it from the manager
“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
The captaincy has been taken off Dedryck Onana. Lokeren will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Niklas Kühn leaves them behind him
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 5.53 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 5.63 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation KV Oostende did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Toby De Bruyne. 3‑2 against Anderlecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every KV Oostende game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokeren runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.80, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.83 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. KV Oostende have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.