“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Teddy Teuma 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.
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.
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.
Marked 4.44. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The offer from KV Kortrijk for David Bates 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 easiest signature of my career.” Matthieu Epolo and Standard Liege agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remi Walter 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 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Casper Nielsen decided nobody was going anywhere. Racing Genk had no time left to answer.
Teddy Teuma 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.
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.
The offer from KAA Gent for Casper Nielsen 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ben Elliott is living that version at Standard Liege, and it tends to show in the first month.
The name of Timothé Nkada has come up in conversations Standard Liege were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Salieu Drammeh and Standard Liege agree another 4 years.
Teddy Teuma 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.55, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Remi Walter 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.
4 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.
Jordan Amavi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adnane Abid 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
0‑1 away to the standard of Shakhtar. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Teddy Teuma 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.24. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remi Walter 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 did not go to Racing Genk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Standard Liege and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matthieu Epolo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
1‑0 against Ajax, 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.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Teddy Teuma 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tobias Mohr will call it something else in private.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
Teddy Teuma 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Remi Walter 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Standard Liege will not try tonight.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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 watch every Standard Liege game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Racing Genk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑1 against Young Boys. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Grejohn Kyei takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Grejohn Kyei provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Standard Liege pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remi Walter 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.
Teddy Teuma 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Nobody at Standard Liege 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.
1‑3 against Shakhtar. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Teddy Teuma 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tobias Mohr will call it something else in private.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adnane Abid 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.
Three points for Standard Liege, 1‑0 the final word against Racing Genk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Standard Liege.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Standard Liege 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Jordan Amavi
2‑3 away to the standard of Ajax. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
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.
Teddy Teuma 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Grejohn Kyei will call it something else in private.
Jordan Amavi 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remi Walter 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Teddy Teuma'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.
“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 Standard Liege, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Teddy Teuma 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. 6 goals between Standard Liege and Zulte Waregem, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Casper Nielsen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
It needed Casper Nielsen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Zulte Waregem, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rodrigo Insúa is living that version at Standard Liege, and it tends to show in the first month.
Westerlo paid $1.2M and Standard Liege took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: KV Kortrijk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Bates. The answer from Standard Liege has not changed — yet.
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.
Luca Dahl Tomasson is 18, and Standard Liege 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Teddy Teuma 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.
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.
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.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The offer from SC Freiburg for Matthieu Epolo 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Lokeren have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandro Calut. The answer from Standard Liege has not changed — yet.
Teddy Teuma 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.
Charleroi left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Karamoko 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.
36 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.