Marked for Iker Álvarez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Eytan Havugimana damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Match1 Dec 2026
0‑3 against KV Oostende, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Standard Liege may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.51 for the rest of it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Iker Álvarez 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.
Squad7 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
Anderlecht next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kelyan Kielo-Lezi damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Matthieu Epolo
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed El Hankouri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gustav Mortensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Something was said to Iker Álvarez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Marlon Fossey has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Josué Homawoo a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Standard Liege. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 starts and an average of 6.62. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑3 to KAA Gent, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Iker Álvarez
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mohammed El Hankouri 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Standard Liege dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 0‑3 Lois Nainggolan left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Matthieu Epolo
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Tobias Mohr beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Grejohn Kyei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over OH Leuven, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.16 — 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Matthieu Epolo
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Lois Nainggolan kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Matthieu Epolo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matthieu Epolo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Mohammed El Hankouri is on it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Iker Álvarez goes
Standard Liege paid $9.3M and Córdoba took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Iker Álvarez has gone, the accounts have $9.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Córdoba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isma Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Córdoba asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.97 on the card, and the Córdoba support went home talking about one name.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Betis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Martín Vázquez could afford to be generous.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Diego Bri
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Grejohn Kyei had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$8.5M on the table at Young Boys. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Standard Liege asked and Zulte Waregem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Standard Liege's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Standard Liege has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Anthony Modeste and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of David Bates has come up in conversations Standard Liege were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adnane Abid and Standard Liege agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Córdoba have gone to Gijón 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Córdoba have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.5M — a club that wants César Gelabert enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Madrid is saying, and nobody at Córdoba is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Carracedo and Córdoba agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Córdoba
Juan Gutiérrez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: David Vega joins the Córdoba first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Vega is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jon González 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Angers SCO come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Standard Liege did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Standard Liege have gone to Córdoba 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Standard Liege have gone to KAA Gent 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Mohammed El Âdfaoui enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Casper Nielsen and Standard Liege agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ryan Fosso
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Carlos Albarrán commits to Córdoba for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Córdoba
Nélson Monte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Córdoba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isma Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Córdoba asked and Cultural Leonesa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Córdoba, another week without a signature from Carlos Albarrán.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Iker Álvarez
Still no offer on the table, and Iker Álvarez’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.