Marked for Eden Onana
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Lokeren say no — this time
The offer from Anderlecht for Kevin Vanaken 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kevin 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Tielemans 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Mouscron leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Lokeren bring in an old head
Marvin Knoll is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Eden Onana talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokeren know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hans Tielemans and Lokeren agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kevin 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.57, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Hans Tielemans knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hans Tielemans trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Romelu Chadli has his answer from Lokeren; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
CSKA Sofia 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Cremonese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nacer Castagne. The answer from Lokeren has not changed — yet.
Squad3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hans Tielemans 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Vanaken, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Lokeren, and it is a cruel one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hans Tielemans 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 Lokeren, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.