“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 The request is on a desk at Lokeren, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Thomas Chadli 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.
“I watch every Lokeren game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ravenna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Axel De Bruyne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Thomas Chadli 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.
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.
Jens Cools 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
Thomas Chadli scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sint-Truiden, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Thomas Chadli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.62. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Lokeren have gone and got theirs early.
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.
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.
“I watch every Lokeren game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.76 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
A 2‑1 win over Waasland-Beveren, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dedryck Lukaku was one of the reasons people came, and $9.2M does not replace that by itself.
The name of Thomas Chadli has come up in conversations Lokeren were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joe Bauress is living that version at Lokeren, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Thomas Chadli 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The name of Dedryck Lukaku has come up in conversations Lokeren were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Thomas Chadli 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.
Rico Strieder is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Axel De Bruyne 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.
3 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
“I watch every Lokeren game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ravenna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
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.
9 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lokeren, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Lois Fellaini 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.
Thomas Chadli 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Thomas Chadli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A 2‑1 win over Mouscron, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Labie 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Thomas Chadli had Lokeren level again within 4 minutes, and Mouscron never got to play with a lead at all.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
Marked 8.85 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Axel De Bruyne's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Jens Cools 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sebastian Bergmann has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
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.
Marked 8.48 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
SquadAndres Labie falls out with a teammate over standards
Jens Cools 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Lokeren have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
9 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
Lois Fellaini 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Westerlo, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Thomas Chadli takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Chadli provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.65 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Thomas Chadli 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.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Labie 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Thomas Chadli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
“I watch every Lokeren game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Lois Fellaini 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jens Cools 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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Marked 8.89 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andres Labie 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.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Guillaume Bernard is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Axel De Bruyne 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
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Chadli 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.
9 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Thomas Chadli 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.
Three points for Lokeren, 1‑0 the final word against Racing Genk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Axel De Bruyne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Derrick Kyere is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Thomas Chadli 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.
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lokeren.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Labie 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Axel Castagne signs something — a contract at Lokeren or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Dedryck Lukaku
Racing Genk go through and Lokeren go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Bergmann 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $750.0K sale of Jason Witsel
He is going to KAA Gent, the club has $750.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from BK Hacken for Yannick Courtois was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Le Havre AC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Freitas. The answer from Lokeren has not changed — yet.
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.
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.
Sint-Truiden arrived with $2.4M 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.
The offer from KV Kortrijk for Dedryck Lukaku was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Zinho Onana was one of the reasons people came, and $2.4M does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Jason Mertens will want to forget — 5.73
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.73, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
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.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The phone has started ringing about Leander De Ketelaere again, and this time the name on the line is Ravenna. Lokeren are listening politely and promising nothing.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Bergmann 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
Axel De Bruyne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.80. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Arzignano will make the call about Yannick Courtois this week. Lokeren have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Axel De Bruyne 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 phone has started ringing about Yannick Courtois again, and this time the name on the line is Arzignano. Lokeren are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lois Fellaini and Lokeren agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Castagne 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.
Axel De Bruyne scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to KV Oostende, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Axel De Bruyne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.83. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.