The Union SG Sentinel
Squad31 Jul 2028
The knee: Ridwane M'barki out for 57 days
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Union SG lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Door shut on Michaël Cuisance
Union SG asked and Hertha BSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
No deal for Suf Podgoreanu at that price
Union SG offered $4.4M; KV Kortrijk said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Union SG — 7.65
1 for Dermane Karim, marked 7.65, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market31 Jul 2028
Dermane Karim wants European nights
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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
Union SG go back to the board over Suf Podgoreanu
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.8M — a club that wants Suf Podgoreanu enough to be asked twice.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Union SG
Nicolò Tresoldi 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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Union SG
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ross Sykes 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.
In brief
- Market Dedryck Alderweireld steps up from the Union SG academy
- Market One of our own: Christian Doku joins the Union SG first team
- Market Simon Kompany steps up from the Union SG academy