Marked for Owen Maës
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Nov 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cracovia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Nov 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A falling-out at Cracovia
Lucas De Bolle and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Cracovia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bratislav Marić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead18 Nov 2030
The leaders are next for Cracovia
Raków Częstochowa top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kacper Śmiglewski, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
A promise honoured at Cracovia
Something was said to Owen Maës and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market18 Nov 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sayfallah Ltaief’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alessandro Pilati trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 Mar 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cracovia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Mar 2030
At 19, Pavlo Matvienko is already the best thing here
An average of 7.10 in a first team he is several years too young for. Cracovia have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at Cracovia
Otar Kakabadze 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Cracovia did not have in the autumn.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Cracovia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lamine Diaby Fadiga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Mar 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Owen Maës commits to Cracovia for another 3 years.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 Otar Kakabadze is on it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market20 Aug 2029
RWDM come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and RAAL La Louviere did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market20 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
A brace, and Mohammed Guindo takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammed Guindo provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market20 Aug 2029
Only the photograph left for Henry Lawrence
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henry Lawrence will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RAAL La Louviere the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Henry Lawrence 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Toby Alderweireld and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market20 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. RAAL La Louviere have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and RAAL La Louviere go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Jul 2029
No end in sight to RAAL La Louviere's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at RAAL La Louviere has to find a result from somewhere.
Market30 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RAAL La Louviere can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. 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 dugout30 Jul 2029
Mohamed Soumaré: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RAAL La Louviere have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market30 Jul 2029
Pescara come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and RAAL La Louviere did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad30 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RAAL La Louviere this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Jul 2029
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
11 academy players handed senior numbers at RAAL La Louviere
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at RAAL La Louviere training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Maës 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. RAAL La Louviere have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market9 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market9 Jul 2029
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Babatunde Akomolede 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Club Brugge, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Toby Alderweireld 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at RAAL La Louviere training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Maës 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.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
Anderlecht will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gabriel Djondo has pre-agreed a move to RAAL La Louviere, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and RAAL La Louviere go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RAAL La Louviere can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 May 2029
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RAAL La Louviere lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 May 2029
“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 RAAL La Louviere, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 May 2029
Sami Lahssaini has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RAAL La Louviere they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 May 2029
Gyrano Kerk 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Toby Alderweireld 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 dugout14 May 2029
“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.
The dugout14 May 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Owen Maës'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.
The dugout14 May 2029
Mohamed Soumaré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market14 May 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2029
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RAAL La Louviere lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market16 Apr 2029
“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 RAAL La Louviere, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RAAL La Louviere is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RAAL La Louviere this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at RAAL La Louviere training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Smith 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 dugout16 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RAAL La Louviere can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Owen Maës'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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luka Hoedaert
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RAAL La Louviere lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Mar 2029
“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 RAAL La Louviere, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Sami Lahssaini
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sami Lahssaini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RAAL La Louviere the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Djibril Lamego and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toby Alderweireld was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Owen Maës is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad19 Mar 2029
6 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
Bryan Soumaré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.