The Lokeren Chronicle
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
Leander Mertens is the hero from the spot
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
Rémy Vasseur asks to leave Lokeren
“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
Laurent Castagne runs at them all day
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
Business is business: Yannick Tielemans goes
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
Youri Meunier 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 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.
In brief
- Match Lokeren come up short against OH Leuven
- Squad Adrià Vilanova gets it from the manager
- Squad Lois Fellaini falls out with a teammate over standards