Marked for Dries Doku
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Charles Lukaku 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
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thorgan Onana 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Dries Doku runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yannick Reuten, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Zinho Batshuayi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
7.93, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Mouscron had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Sint-Truiden leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market5 Oct 2026
Mouscron bring in an old head
Federico Sardella is 38 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Experience through the door at Mouscron
Sídnei arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Mouscron
Position 15 and 7 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.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Thorgan Onana 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 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Hans Witsel
“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
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 79. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Dries Doku at 20 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dries Doku did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Charles Lukaku 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
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michaël Heylen 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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Dries Doku
At 20 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Waasland-Beveren, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Mouscron
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Mouscron are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ibe Hautekiet 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 Sep 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thorgan Onana 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jarno Libert 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Dries Doku runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mouscron, another week without a signature from Hüseyin Ertürk.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Mouscron have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Mouscron
0‑1 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Mouscron say no — this time
The offer from Club Brugge for Laurent Carrasco 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Youri Witsel 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Zinho De Bruyne reports back to Mouscron with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Hüseyin Ertürk from Waasland-Beveren for $640.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Michaël Heylen 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dries Doku 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
Match15 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Mouscron
2‑5 against Lokeren, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mouscron say no — this time
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Simon Nainggolan 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Simon Nainggolan 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dries Onana has left for Charleroi in a $610.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match15 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Mouscron and Lokeren, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Thorgan Onana 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Mouscron dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Beaten 5 times, with 0 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 64. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Mouscron did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Simon Nainggolan takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simon Nainggolan provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Dries Doku could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.41
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.41, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Market3 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 Mouscron heard it as anything else.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Casertana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Youri Januzaj. The answer from Mouscron has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Charles Lukaku 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Simon Nainggolan 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for Mouscron, 3‑1 the final word against Zulte Waregem in a contest settled by the finer margins.