32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Racing Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Genk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Racing Genk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Aurélien Scheidler reports back to Racing Genk with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Genk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aurélien Scheidler provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samed Baždar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing Genk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Breel Embolo reports back to Racing Genk with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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 The request is on a desk at Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Racing Genk scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atvidaberg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Racing Genk 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 Racing Genk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Genk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Aurélien Scheidler has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yari Vanderhallen is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Junya Ito has improved at 36, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Genk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Samed Baždar has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 23 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.
Racing Genk asked and KV Mechelen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Genk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aleksa Marković is living that version at Racing Genk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Genk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Andorra had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Josué Homawoo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing Genk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 22 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Genk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Massimo Decoene has just signed for Racing Genk, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Racing Genk hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Racing Genk have gone to KV Mechelen 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk 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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Westerlo for Samed Baždar 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and HNK Rijeka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Racing Genk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Genk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of Jeppe Erenbjerg has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yari Vanderhallen is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadWords at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Genk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Racing Genk will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Josué Homawoo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing Genk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Josué Homawoo has agreed terms with KV Mechelen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Breel Embolo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Genk 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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Genk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Genk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk 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.
7 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.
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 Yaimar Medina is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Genk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jeppe Erenbjerg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Genk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Genk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Racing Genk will try again when the window opens; Roda may not be selling by then.
Racing Genk offered $4.1M; Standard Liege said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Racing Genk close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jur Schipper wants continental football; whether Racing Genk can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
0‑1 against Austria Wien, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Racing Genk can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
3 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.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Genk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Breel Embolo wants continental football; whether Racing Genk can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadJunya Ito falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Racing Genk, 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.” Racing Genk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carl Starfelt 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.
Position 5, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sint-Truiden scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
1‑0 against Grasshopper, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
7.59, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Breel Embolo wants continental football; whether Racing Genk can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carl Starfelt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Breel Embolo 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Genk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Racing Genk asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.8M 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.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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 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 Racing Genk hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dante Rigo 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.
In brief
Squad13 new faces, and Racing Genk are still learning each other
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Charleroi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Racing Genk, the club has $7.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Oscar Latteur has agreed terms with Lokeren for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Pflücke 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 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 Charleroi know it.
Racing Genk have gone to OGC Nice 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.
Racing Genk asked and Olympique de Marseille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fee is $7.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Charleroi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Genk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Oleg Reabciuk has, at Racing Genk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Genk heard it as anything else.
Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Racing Genk offered $260.0K; Charleroi said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Carl Starfelt 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Club Brugge for Jason Denayer 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 fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Westerlo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Charleroi offered $460.0K; Anderlecht said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
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.
Racing Genk asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Racing Genk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sint-Truiden did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $14.0M for Samed Baždar, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Racing Genk have gone to Charleroi 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.
“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.
Racing Genk offered $510.0K; Anderlecht said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Junya Ito 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have shaken hands with Waasland-Beveren; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Sint-Truiden this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
$1.5M on the table at Westerlo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Charleroi hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Toby Alderweireld 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.
Charleroi offered $69.0K; Zulte Waregem said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Charleroi, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Charleroi 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.
Position 5 on 48 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ismaïl Aaneba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Karst de Leeuw has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 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 Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Racing Genk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Deano Van Rooyen has pre-agreed a move to Charleroi, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lois Meunier 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dedryck Kompany 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Youri Hazard 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dries De Ketelaere 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 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 watch every Charleroi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sint-Truiden runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Koné will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Charleroi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Toby Alderweireld and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Pflücke 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 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 Charleroi know it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi 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 Patrick Pflücke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I watch every Charleroi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sint-Truiden runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
48 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Karst de Leeuw has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi 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 Patrick Pflücke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Charleroi now know that too.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Grejohn Kyei has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Position 5 on 48 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 Isaías Delpupo has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 48 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Toby Alderweireld 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 Feb 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Pflücke 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Charleroi had all but put away. OH Leuven will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nordin Jackers 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yoram Boerhout has, at Charleroi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Pflücke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Nobody at Charleroi 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Charleroi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Anderlecht for Jason Denayer 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.
Toby Alderweireld 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Charleroi and KV Oostende in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Charleroi can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Charleroi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Valentijn van der Velde has, at Charleroi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
0‑1 to Anderlecht, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kévin Van Den Kerkhof 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.
“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 dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Simon Courtois left the room before anybody could ask which.
Michael Bresser is 20, and Charleroi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charleroi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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. Sunderland have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Standard Liege: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Badr Gaddarine has his answer from Charleroi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Charleroi 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.
“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.
Grejohn Kyei had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sint-Truiden were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Toby Alderweireld 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Westerlo were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aurélien Scheidler. 2‑1 against Westerlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Charleroi has been clear about where Antoine Bernier stands, which is more than many ever get.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
2‑2 against Slavia Prague, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Aurélien Scheidler was at the centre of the description.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 Charleroi 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 Patrick Pflücke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Charleroi hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Antoine Colassin 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wissam Ben Yedder commits to Charleroi for another 1 years.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Jason Denayer 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 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.
He is 19, and nobody at Charleroi signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
A brace, and Grejohn Kyei takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Grejohn Kyei provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A 3‑2 win over Standard Liege, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8.67. 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.
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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Simon Courtois kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutGrejohn Kyei has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Isaías Delpupo wants continental football; whether Charleroi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jason Denayer 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simon Courtois on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
0‑5. Real Madrid play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Lokeren were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Three points for Charleroi, 1‑0 the final word against Lokeren in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kévin Van Den Kerkhof 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 8.11 — 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.