The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KV Kortrijk is running low.
“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 The request is on a desk at KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KV Kortrijk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Sami Bouhoudane, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.46
A mark of 8.46 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 The request is on a desk at KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $570.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. OH Leuven drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Marko Ilić 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. Dirk Asare 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jellert Van Landschoot 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jellert Van Landschoot. 2‑1 against Westerlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every KV Kortrijk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mouscron runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sami Bouhoudane did not need any: 8.48, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. KV Kortrijk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jellert Van Landschoot 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 — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burnley lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Miloš Kerkez 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 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.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Burnley lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Burnley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Destiny Okonkwo is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Tibe De Vlieger, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.90
A mark of 8.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Michał Skóraś 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
9.08. 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.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Thorgan Hazard had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sint-Truiden were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
8.11. 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.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lumezzane runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tibe De Vlieger did not need any: 8.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Michał Skóraś 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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Siracusa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jason Witsel. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kjell Peersman 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 words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tibe De Vlieger provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Michał Skóraś 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kjell Peersman, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
László Bénes 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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Aug 2027
Aimé Omgba wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Aimé Omgba found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Waasland-Beveren went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kjell Peersman 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. René Mitongo 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.
20 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Antonio Puertas is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Tibe De Vlieger, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.70
A mark of 8.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Michał Skóraś 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tibe De Vlieger 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albacete lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadJavi Villar falls out with a teammate over standards
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albacete lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The words a physio says slowly. 138 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Albacete heard it as anything 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 Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo and Albacete agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Javi Villar 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
146 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albacete lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Albacete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edward Cedeño is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Albacete know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Antonio Puertas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
4 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.98 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
David Simón 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jesús Vallejo signs something — a contract at Albacete or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Mario Soberón was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 204% of everything Albacete earn
Antonio Puertas 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
7 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
David Simón 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Mario Soberón was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
Antonio Puertas 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 20 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.
Marked 8.65. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Albacete.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
Antonio Puertas 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Albacete, another week without a signature from Diego Mariño.
24 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Agus Medina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.