Marked for Leander Mertens
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 14 and 10 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Laurent Castagne 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorrit Smeets 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Waasland-Beveren to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokeren and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
A European night to remember for Lokeren
0‑0 against Ludogorets, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match3 Oct 2026
9 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Lois Fellaini will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Lokeren escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Lois Fellaini pops up at the right end — 7.39
7.39, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Radja Mignolet and Lokeren agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Radja Alderweireld 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.
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Lois Fellaini to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Club Brugge, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radja Alderweireld 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Waasland-Beveren to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokeren and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Maximilian Schumacher's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jorrit Smeets 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
The window shut and Nacer Hazard is still in the building
Lokeren spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Lokeren
1‑1 against Racing Genk, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Dedryck Doku could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.27
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.27, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Leander Mertens: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
KV Mechelen paid $1.5M and Lokeren took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Zinho Chadli — 7.13
Marked 7.13. 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.
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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Toby Januzaj goes
Charleroi paid $310.0K and Lokeren took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sint-Truiden paid $1.9M and Lokeren took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Laurent Castagne 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
Adrià Vilanova 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.
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Leander Mertens knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Market17 Aug 2026
At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.