Marked for Mousa Witsel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market6 Dec 2027
“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.
Match4 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Mouscron
5 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Thorgan 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Partey 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Jacopo Sala
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Match4 Dec 2027
It needed Aliou Badji to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Lokeren, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market6 Dec 2027
The Adnan Lukaku story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adnan Lukaku signs something — a contract at Mouscron or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Nov 2027
Mousa Witsel: 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.” Mouscron have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mouscron is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Thomas Partey 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
KAA Gent left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Nov 2027
“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 Mouscron, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Nov 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Thomas Partey 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 ratings1 Nov 2027
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Match30 Oct 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Jason Tielemans dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Market1 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mouscron know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Mousa Witsel changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Mouscron had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
A one-man rearguard from Tobe Leysen
There were 8 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Thorgan Mertens, 33, rolls back the years — 8.37
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Thorgan 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 ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josh Robinson, and the manager let it.
Market2 Aug 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Benevento will make the call about Leander Carrasco this week. Mouscron have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I watch every Mouscron game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Penafiel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market2 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mousa Witsel has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Mouscron.
Squad2 Aug 2027
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mouscron will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jul 2027
Nacer Meunier hands in a written request
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Thorgan 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Mousa Witsel for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mouscron will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Michy Openda 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
A season-long audition: Sivasspor still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Mouscron's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 May 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Mousa Witsel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mouscron will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Thorgan 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Cherny 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mouscron will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Mousa Witsel: 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.” Mouscron have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Thorgan 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Mouscron
Position 14 and 26 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Yannick Carrasco again, and this time the name on the line is VfL Wolfsburg. Mouscron are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 Mouscron, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mouscron may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Thorgan 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Charleroi left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
45 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.