Marked for Laurent De Ketelaere
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Youri Courtois takes the afternoon — 8.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youri Courtois provided it, and the 8.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Mousa Batshuayi — 7.91
Marked 7.91. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Match28 Nov 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Standard Liege tried to reorganise, KV Oostende did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Colombatti 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and KV Oostende 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.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Heerenveen to sit and watch. I want to come back to KV Oostende and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Heerenveen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasse Nordås 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Luca Oyen 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 Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maas Willemsen, and the manager let it.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Heracles leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Youri Courtois takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youri Courtois provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market2 Nov 2026
Youri Courtois 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play KV Oostende right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A move Gaël Lafont would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gaël Lafont is living that version at KV Oostende, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Lois Witsel has a hand in both — 7.96
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.96, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mousa Batshuayi 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youri Courtois. 3‑1 against Zulte Waregem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Adrià Vilanova 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 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jan Vertonghen 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 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dani van den Heuvel is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, KV Oostende do not lose
6 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every KV Oostende game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heerenveen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.40 on the card, and the KV Oostende support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Sep 2026
Zwolle come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Heerenveen did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Maas Willemsen again, and this time the name on the line is Groningen. Heerenveen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Ringo Meerveld — 7.98
Marked 7.98. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lasse Nordås 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.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Amourricho van Axel Dongen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 4‑4 against PSV, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Utrecht for Marcus Linday 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Mats Egbring, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 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.
Market31 Aug 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 Heerenveen can pretend not to have heard.
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 Heerenveen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lasse Nordås 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.89 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Heerenveen had the best player on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Heerenveen
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Levi Smans
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from PSV for Lois Witsel 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Eden Doku 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 KV Oostende can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mousa Mertens 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mousa Mertens
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Club Brugge for Mousa 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Ajax have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mousa Batshuayi. The answer from KV Oostende has not changed — yet.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Youri Courtois and KV Oostende agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Radja Tielemans 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jan Vertonghen 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.48 on the card, and the KV Oostende support went home talking about one name.