Marked for Toby Meunier
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Timothy Boyata
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mouscron lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Mouscron's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mouscron has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Lois Hazard 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A move Harvey Griffiths 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. Harvey Griffiths is living that version at Mouscron, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zinho 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mouscron, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Market11 Jan 2027
Lapo Deli is 20, and Mouscron have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Dec 2026
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market28 Dec 2026
Dante Rigo 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 Waasland-Beveren can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Waasland-Beveren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Viktor Boone 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Toby Meunier is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Lennart 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Waasland-Beveren can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mousa Mignolet damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Dec 2026
2‑1 against Slavia Sofia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Youri Kompany was at the centre of the description.
Match12 Dec 2026
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Youri Kompany decided nobody was going anywhere. Slavia Sofia had no time left to answer.
Player ratings14 Dec 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Zinho Meunier takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zinho Meunier provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Youri Kompany, 33, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Lois Hazard 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.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match12 Dec 2026
Standard Liege made Mouscron work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mousa Mignolet damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match14 Nov 2026
7 matches without a win for Mouscron
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Mouscron are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Afonso Patrão at 19 — 7.96
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Afonso Patrão did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mouscron may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zinho 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mousa Mignolet damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lois Hazard 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad19 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 watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Mouscron game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Waasland-Beveren runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sieben Dewaele 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 Oct 2026
Toby Meunier is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lennart 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Waasland-Beveren know it.
Match17 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Waasland-Beveren can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mousa Mignolet
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mouscron lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2026
A European lesson for Mouscron
0‑2 against Genoa. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lois Hazard 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Charles Openda
“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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mouscron, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Waasland-Beveren's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Waasland-Beveren has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sieben Dewaele 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.