There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tibe De Vlieger 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.
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 8.07 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent 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.
Nobody at KAA Gent 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAA Gent, another week without a signature from Gyano Vanderdonck.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAA Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A 4‑1 win over Olympic Charleroi, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“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 The request is on a desk at KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Novi Pazar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gyano Vanderdonck did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
KAA Gent asked and RWDM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Davy Roef 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent 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.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Davy Roef 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and László Bénes has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Something was said to Adnan Januzaj and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tibe De Vlieger will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Racing Genk 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.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Aleksander Bobek comes from ŁKS Łódź for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Aleksander Bobek has, at KAA Gent, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
KAA Gent have gone to Club Brugge with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 KAA Gent, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The phone has started ringing about Momodou Sonko again, and this time the name on the line is Lokeren-Temse. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
29 appearances and 5 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and László Bénes’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Adem Zorgane 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 Jun 2027
Simon Buggea 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 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KAA Gent will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutMoctar Diop knocks on the manager’s door
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAA Gent will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent 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 Divock Origi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Siebe Van der Heyden is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAA Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 goals in 26 games at Patro Eisden — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KAA Gent updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulsamet Burak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kayserispor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fedor Chalov 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kayserispor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kayserispor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 30 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kayserispor is running low.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kayserispor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kasimpasa held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Kayserispor answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“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 Kayserispor, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Serdar Sinik after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent 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.
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 Siebe Van der Heyden is on it.
Fatih Karagumruk will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kayserispor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kayserispor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedor Chalov 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.
Marked 8.55 — 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Serdar Sinik, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Kayserispor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent 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.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Davy Roef 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 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 KAA Gent, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Romain Amalfitano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arif Kocaman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kayserispor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of 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 Kayserispor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kayserispor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedor Chalov 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 performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Fedor Chalov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fedor Chalov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kayserispor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kayserispor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Abdulsamet Burak has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fedor Chalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kayserispor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kayserispor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Adem Zorgane 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KAA Gent know it.
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Divock Origi 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yira Sor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kayserispor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Kayserispor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arif Kocaman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kayserispor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for László Bénes, marked 7.69, 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kayserispor know it.
Joshua Brenet 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was László Bénes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kayserispor.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Fedor Chalov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsJoão Mendes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Burak Kapacak
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kayserispor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Joshua Brenet 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 Fedor Chalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Furkan Soyalp has his answer from Kayserispor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I watch every Kayserispor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Erzurumspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Kayserispor had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Deniz Unai was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kayserispor dressing room was either.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kayserispor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fedor Chalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Kayserispor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Deniz Unai, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kayserispor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Kayserispor asked and Corum FK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kayserispor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Cardoso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Davy Roef 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 Divock Origi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at KAA Gent that is a harder question to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kayserispor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Kayserispor 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bilal Bayazıt signs something — a contract at Kayserispor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A side in position 10 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Position 17 and 3 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and László Bénes takes the afternoon — 8.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. László Bénes provided it, and the 8.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kayserispor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fedor Chalov 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kayserispor and Gaziantep, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kayserispor.
The dugout2 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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Deniz Unai to a room that had heard them before.
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.
7 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.
Joshua Brenet 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bruno Costa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bilal Bayazıt'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.
1‑5 to Fenerbahce, 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.
6 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kayserispor and Fenerbahce, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Bilal Bayazıt knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
1‑6 to Trabzonspor, 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Kayserispor and Trabzonspor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vanspor have kept their man, and Kayserispor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑6, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kayserispor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Joshua Brenet 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Kayserispor and Basaksehir, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Add another name to the list: Genclerbirligi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arif Kocaman. The answer from Kayserispor has not changed — yet.
Kayserispor asked and Sakaryaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fedor Chalov 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdulsamet Burak has his answer from Kayserispor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kayserispor, another week without a signature from Carlos Mané.