“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Beerschot 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 Beerschot 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 Genki Haraguchi 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 Beerschot, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Anas Haj signs something — a contract at Beerschot or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Alfred Gomis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Beerschot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Anas Haj 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 in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Beerschot. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 goals in 6 games at Ararat — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Beerschot updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Beerschot 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 Beerschot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Beerschot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Genki Haraguchi 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Briek Morel has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Beerschot have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Beerschot will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Jong Genk had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout12 Apr 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.” Charles Hazard chose the glass-half-full version of 3‑3; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Alfred Gomis
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Genki Haraguchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Lokeren-Temse will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Beerschot were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Siviwe Magidigidi did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Brian Plat scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Raúl Torrente 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beerschot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Beerschot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Anas Haj 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.
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.
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.
The dugout15 Mar 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.” Charles Hazard chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lommel? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beerschot 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.
“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; Beerschot are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The goal that put Eupen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Beerschot equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Beerschot lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Genki Haraguchi 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.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Anas Haj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Beerschot lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beerschot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrej Vasović. 3‑2 against RFC Liege, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Anas Haj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Palermo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Palermo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Palermo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Giosuè Grippa 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 dugout23 Nov 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.” Silvio Rossetti chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Empoli? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Palermo 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 Palermo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Palermo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Filippo Ranocchia, marked 7.91, 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alfred Gomis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Palermo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Strefezza wants continental football; whether Palermo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Palermo asked and Monza 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcello Conti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniele Basile is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gabriel Strefezza’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Palermo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
They sit in position 6 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
The offer from Eibar for Alfred Gomis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Palermo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Antonio Palumbo signs something — a contract at Palermo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A season-long audition: Bologna still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Palermo's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Palermo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Palermo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Alfred Gomis has come up in conversations Palermo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Palermo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.