Marked for David Baron
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Baron breaks a bone — 39 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Charles Witsel takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Charles Witsel provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Dedryck Vanaken — 7.83
Marked 7.83. 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over KV Mechelen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Richard Chevalier 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Lokeren
10 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
David Baron breaks a bone — 46 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Sep 2026
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Lokeren found something the first half had given no notice of, and Standard Liege could not hold what they had.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Charles Witsel takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Charles Witsel provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Thomas 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Lokeren, 3‑2 the final word against Standard Liege in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 19 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Youri Mignolet
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lois Mignolet dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
David Baron breaks a bone — 53 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Lokeren heard it as anything else.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Racing Genk left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Richard Chevalier 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
David Baron breaks a bone — 60 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 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 Lokeren can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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
Thomas 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Chevalier 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
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 5.01, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The stands have heard the Thomas Lukaku talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Lokeren would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
Mouscron come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
Axel Boyata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lokeren have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thomas 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youri Courtois, and the manager let it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 22 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Lokeren, 1‑0 the final word against Zulte Waregem in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Chevalier 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mohammed El Âdfaoui is 18, and Lokeren have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Simon Vanaken goes
Tottenham paid $34.8M 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Racing Genk come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Lukaku and Lokeren agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
David Baron 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Witsel 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.79 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Lokeren had the best player on the pitch.