Marked for Mousa De Ketelaere
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 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 Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Khokhlov 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Azarenkov, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Dec 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 The request is on a desk at Uralets-TS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Maxim Gorin 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 Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Gerasimov commits to Uralets-TS for another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sergey Serchenkov 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Three points for Uralets-TS, 1‑0 the final word against Rubin 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 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
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uralets-TS can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Uralets-TS did not have in the autumn.
Squad16 Nov 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 Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uralets-TS know it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Khokhlov 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.
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jakub Jakimiuk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uralets-TS.
Squad16 Nov 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
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑4 against Amkar, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Rustam Berzegov delivers — 6.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rustam Berzegov scored, was marked 6.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Rúben Gonçalves 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sergey Serchenkov 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nuno Rafael, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Uralets-TS dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Mousa De Ketelaere has been signed to close it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mousa De Ketelaere commits to Uralets-TS for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Axel Alderweireld takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Axel Alderweireld provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radja 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Mazur 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Westerlo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and KV Oostende are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Axel Alderweireld has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
KV Oostende throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Waasland-Beveren the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that KV Oostende will enjoy reviewing.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Axel Hazard to Racing Genk 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.
Market7 Sep 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for KV Oostende
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around KV Oostende are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Simon 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Lamine Diakité from Djoliba for $1.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michy Courtois 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ricardinho gets it from the manager
“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.