Marked for Benjamin Santelli
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Oct 2027
Fernand Gouré hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Westerlo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Thomas Van Den Keybus 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Santelli and Westerlo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Westerlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Waasland-Beveren to sit and watch. I want to come back to Westerlo and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Westerlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Mamadou Doucouré: 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.” Westerlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Serhiy Sydorchuk 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Cisse Sandra knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of David Amegnaglo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Westerlo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes Amando Lapage a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Westerlo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
4 appearances at Helsingborg and the goals keep coming. Westerlo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
3‑0, and Benjamin Santelli took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Westerlo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kévin Hoggas breaks a bone — 14 days out
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The match ball belongs to Benjamin Santelli, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.41, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Isa Sakamoto has come up in conversations Westerlo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Nikola Storm beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Cissé 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Mouscron blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Mouscron tried to reorganise, Westerlo did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Westerlo
Thomas Van Den Keybus 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Andreas Jungdal
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ferris N'Goma 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 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Eden Fellaini to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Westerlo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 22 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Benjamin Santelli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Westerlo.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Westerlo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cisse Sandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Felix Tsimba gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Westerlo are still strangers to each other
19 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.