Marked for Simon Doku
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
Mouscron say no — this time
The offer from KV Oostende for Jason Vertonghen 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Mouscron
4 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thorgan Mertens and Mouscron agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Simon Doku 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
12 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Sint-Truiden came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Youri 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Doku 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
1‑2 to Westerlo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thorgan Mertens, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Too much change too quickly at Mouscron
13 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Simon Openda is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mouscron has been clear about where Simon Openda stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Mouscron were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Mouscron have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mouscron may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mouscron have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Simon Doku 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lucas Droyaux is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Waasland-Beveren to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mouscron and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Match2 Jan 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Simon Doku 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch7 Dec 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 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Eden Onana’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mouscron.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anderson Künzel and Mouscron agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Simon Doku 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 Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A move Rodrigo Freitas 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. Rodrigo Freitas is living that version at Mouscron, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Mouscron
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Simon 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Noan Géraux gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Noan Géraux has just signed for Mouscron, and for once the answer mattered.
Match14 Nov 2026
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jason Januzaj
“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
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Mouscron — 7.89
1 for Daan Dierckx, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match17 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Mouscron do not lose
8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Simon 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 23 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Eden Onana
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ángel García and Mouscron agree another 3 years.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matheus Neves and Mouscron agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jason Carrasco 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Mousa Vanaken has left for Westerlo in a $410.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Youri Lukaku 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hans Boyata, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Leander Vertonghen has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Mouscron.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Simon 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Neves 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Eden Onana runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 23 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.