Marked for Romelu Batshuayi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokeren may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Lokeren
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
The goals have deserted Lokeren
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokeren can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Eden Openda 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toby Tielemans 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Getting past Eden Carrasco has become the hardest job in the division
11 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every Lokeren game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Waasland-Beveren runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match13 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Charleroi will be the happier side with the point.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Simon Courtois sold
Newcastle United arrived with $13.0M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Market31 Aug 2026
$1.2M — a new record at Lokeren
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dedryck Chadli
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Aug 2026
The small margins put Lokeren out
Out, 1‑2 to Racing Genk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad31 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Lokeren sell a favourite for $13.0M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Simon Courtois was one of the reasons people came, and $13.0M does not replace that by itself.
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Lokeren
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Eden Openda 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
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The terraces
Lokeren spend $1.2M on the signing the town wanted
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Match
Lokeren come up short against OH Leuven
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 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 Mouscron, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Mouscron sell a favourite for $1.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Romelu Batshuayi was one of the reasons people came, and $1.2M does not replace that by itself.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Zinho Alderweireld delivers — 7.15
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zinho Alderweireld scored, was marked 7.15, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Mouscron
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mouscron are no longer polite ones.
Market31 Aug 2026
Lokeren paid $1.2M and Mouscron took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.