The Lokeren Chronicle
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
Thomas Lukaku stays put
“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
Thomas Lukaku 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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Nicolas Guyot wants more than Lokeren are offering
“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
Youri Courtois runs at them all day
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
Zinho De Ketelaere takes the honours
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.
In brief
- Market No place for Lois De Ketelaere in the plan
- Match Lokeren share the spoils with KV Kortrijk
- Player ratings Charles Alderweireld spends the afternoon fouling