The mood at Lokeren-Temse has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 17 and 24 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokeren-Temse they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokeren-Temse can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Kireev 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokeren-Temse 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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Maksim Kireev 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren-Temse are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokeren-Temse know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Alexandro Calut keeps the shirt for now, at Lokeren-Temse's convenience rather than his own.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
32 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. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Dries Carrasco recited it perfectly.
David Bates 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abian Arslan 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.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokeren-Temse know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nikita Getman has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Maksim Kireev’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The mood at Lokeren-Temse has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Rabago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokeren-Temse the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Stan Naert 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.94, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokeren-Temse is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
David Bates and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksim Kireev 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Maksim Kireev had Lokeren-Temse level again within 2 minutes, and Seraing never got to play with a lead at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
RWDM left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Stan Naert 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RFC Liege in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The mood at Lokeren-Temse has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokeren-Temse can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
David Bates and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Maksim Kireev 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.
20 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.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren-Temse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Laurent Vertonghen clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“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.
David Bates 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Kireev 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokeren-Temse is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokeren-Temse can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Kireev 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Tein Troost 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Diego Cámara has his answer from Lokeren-Temse; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohamed Bakhkhach’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lokeren-Temse needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lokeren-Temse has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lokeren-Temse can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
David Bates 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Anan Khalaili was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stan Naert 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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokeren-Temse they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren-Temse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren-Temse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anisse Brrou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokeren-Temse the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
RFC Liege left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Bakhkhach 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Laurent Vertonghen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
4 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.
Ibrahima Cissé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Aug 2027
David Bates 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.
1‑4 to Dender, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren-Temse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anisse Brrou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokeren-Temse the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Bates 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.
Lokeren-Temse asked and Olympic Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mamadou Barry
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokeren-Temse have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokeren-Temse will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Bates 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.
A loan enquiry to Francs Borains: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lokeren-Temse can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokeren-Temse have lost him in all but the paperwork.
David Bates and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mamadou Barry 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lokeren-Temse will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Lokeren-Temse have made the call to Lommel. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren-Temse is running low.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokeren-Temse will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Iñaki Elejalde was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
“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-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with IK Start is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$210.0K was the most the club would pay and Standard Liege were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
SquadWords at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokeren-Temse will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
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.
$210.0K on the table at Standard Liege. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
David Bates and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Barry 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.
Lokeren-Temse asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokeren-Temse will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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-Temse can pretend not to have heard.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Lokeren-Temse are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lucas Hey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
David Bates 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tein Troost signs something — a contract at Lokeren-Temse or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 May 2027
David Bates 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Simon Hazard has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lois Lukaku has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simon Openda has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nacer Chadli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren-Temse is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokeren-Temse will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The mood at Lokeren-Temse has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Bates was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Lokeren-Temse will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokeren-Temse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
David Bates 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Ibrahima Cissé, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Lokeren-Temse are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
David Bates 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 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.
Something was said to Sylvester Jasper and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren-Temse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokeren-Temse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tein Troost 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
David Bates 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lokeren-Temse can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ibrahima Cissé did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Bates 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
David Bates 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.
7 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Laurent Vertonghen chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
“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-Temse, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren-Temse is running low.
The offer from Westerlo for Iñaki Elejalde 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Lokeren-Temse had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Club Brugge, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Tein Troost and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
David Bates 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodez AF have kept their man, and Lokeren-Temse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Lokeren-Temse and Union SG have settled on $5.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jong Gent were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Bates 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ibrahima Cissé, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matti Van De Gehuchte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Bates was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
56 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Laurent Vertonghen to a room that had heard them before.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren-Temse lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Tein Troost 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Bates was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Laurent Vertonghen to a room that had heard them before.
RWDM next, and one man in the Lokeren-Temse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
David Bates 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iñaki Elejalde. 2‑1 against Olympic Charleroi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeovanni Dianganga and Lokeren-Temse agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lokeren-Temse told Maksim Kireev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Maksim Kireev 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Laurent Vertonghen after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Ibrahima Cissé and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokeren-Temse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Beaten 4 times, 3 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Naim Boujouh
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
David Bates 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lierse in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rune Van Den Bergh is on it.
David Bates and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody at Lokeren-Temse saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lokeren-Temse told David Bates something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Kireev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
103% of the income goes out in wages at Lokeren-Temse
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.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Cercle Brugge go through and Lokeren-Temse go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Robbe Wielandt did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
Tein Troost 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
Lokeren-Temse spend $3.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.3M for Alexandro Calut, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The clubs have shaken hands with Standard Liege; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deal with KAA Gent is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Lokeren-Temse asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tein Troost and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matias Lloci 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 mark of 7.30, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Laurent Vertonghen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Player ratingsToon Janssen could not find anything
The dugoutToon Janssen is still being punished for one mistake
$3.1M on the table at Standard Liege. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AZ is saying, and nobody at Lokeren-Temse is enjoying the guessing.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Bates 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Everything agreed with Standard Liege, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jérémy Vachoux 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Romelu Mertens has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thorgan Januzaj is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mousa Chadli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jason Fellaini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sebastiaan Brebels’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lokeren-Temse needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A new face in his position, and Tein Troost suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Lokeren-Temse have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutJarno Vervaque asks for a word with the manager
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-Temse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Eupen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren-Temse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matias Lloci 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Tein Troost’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Laurent Vertonghen to a room that had heard them before.
Lokeren-Temse have made the call to Standard Liege. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.