The Anderlecht Chronicle
Player ratings28 Jul 2031
Leander Carrasco runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 66. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Jul 2031
Nobody wins at Anderlecht
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Samuele di Benedetto keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Anderlecht may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market28 Jul 2031
Only the photograph left for Jay Matete
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jay Matete will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anderlecht the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 Jul 2031
Thorgan Carrasco 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.
Match26 Jul 2031
Whatever happens, Anderlecht do not lose
8 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.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
A new deal for Thorgan Carrasco
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Mario Stroeykens 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 Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Danylo Sikan 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
- Boardroom Graduation day at Anderlecht
- Market Anderlecht promote Simon Batshuayi from within
- Market Simon Doku steps up from the Anderlecht academy