Marked for Mousa Tielemans
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation KV Oostende did not have in the autumn.
Market2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Hans Boyata
17 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hans Boyata 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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nico Schulz in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Timothy Kompany delivers — 7.17
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Timothy Kompany scored, was marked 7.17, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market14 Sep 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 KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hans Boyata 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Fabrício gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fabrício has just signed for KV Oostende, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eden Hazard 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
Whatever happens, KV Oostende do not lose
6 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at KV Oostende
8 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Waasland-Beveren to sit and watch. I want to come back to KV Oostende and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KV Oostende, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Hans Boyata again, and this time the name on the line is Benfica. KV Oostende are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Toby Tielemans to KV Mechelen has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to KV Oostende with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hans Boyata 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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eden Hazard 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zinho Vanheusden, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dedryck Chadli
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market3 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.
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 KV Oostende heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hans Boyata 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 KV Oostende this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eden Hazard 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
1‑2 to Lokeren, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.