Marked for Timothy Boyata
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Apr 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Bassanello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokeren the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Apr 2035
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Apr 2035
Zakaria Bakkali damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Adalberto Peñaranda 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.
In brief
-
Squad
Tobe Leysen falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
The Lokeren production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Apr 2035
Zakaria Bakkali damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Apr 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Apr 2035
Zakaria Bakkali damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The terraces9 Apr 2035
Anger at Lokeren spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match9 Apr 2035
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 16 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
A stranger takes charge at Lokeren
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market2 Apr 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokeren they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anteo Fetahu and Lokeren agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobe Leysen 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Doğucan Haspolat is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Doğucan Haspolat is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
$1.8M taken back off the Lokeren table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Tobe Leysen 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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
In brief
-
Boardroom
The Lokeren production line keeps running
-
Squad
Anteo Fetahu keeps his manager's vote
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Mar 2035
“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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Chinedu Ekene 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Mar 2035
Anger at Lokeren spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match12 Mar 2035
Lokeren are in real trouble now
Position 16, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
Pressure builds in the Lokeren boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokeren is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Doğucan Haspolat commits to Lokeren for another 2 years.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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.
In brief
-
Squad
Chinedu Ekene falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
$1.8M taken back off the Lokeren table
-
Market
The Tobe Leysen story refuses to die
-
Boardroom
Lokeren were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Feb 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Feb 2035
47 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
The Lokeren production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Feb 2035
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 98 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Feb 2035
“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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobe Leysen 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
The manager makes an example of Anteo Fetahu
“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.
Match17 Feb 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Feb 2035
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 terraces19 Feb 2035
Everybody has an opinion about Tobe Leysen
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
Sasso runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 9. 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
Crisis
The terraces12 Feb 2035
Anger at Lokeren spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match10 Feb 2035
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Feb 2035
Lokeren are in real trouble now
Position 16, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Timothy Boyata out for 107 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Tobe Leysen 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.
Match10 Feb 2035
1‑3 to Sint-Truiden, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Engin Aksoy 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.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Tobe Leysen 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.
Player ratings12 Feb 2035
Successful dribbles: 7. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Feb 2035
The wait goes on for Lokeren
11 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Timothy Boyata breaks a bone — 115 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Lokeren
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren is running low.
Market5 Feb 2035
The deal that would have taken Kevin De Ketelaere to Sint-Truiden has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Lokeren with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market5 Feb 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokeren they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adalberto Peñaranda commits to Lokeren for another 1 years.
Match3 Feb 2035
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Chinedu Ekene 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.