Marked for Bryan Reynolds
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Westerlo
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Westerlo are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Isa Sakamoto scored one and made one — 7.72
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.72, and 2 involvements.
Match12 Sep 2026
Fernand Gouré among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Fernand Gouré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Westerlo and KV Oostende.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Doğucan Haspolat 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Bryan Reynolds
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Westerlo
8 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Uwe Meier
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Westerlo were going nowhere until he came on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andreas Jungdal commits to Westerlo for another 4 years.
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 Westerlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Doğucan Haspolat 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Dylan Ourega
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Bryan Reynolds's contract
48 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Bakary Haïdara is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Westerlo has been clear about where Bakary Haïdara stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Westerlo, another week without a signature from Roman Neustädter.
In brief
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Match
Point won or two lost for Westerlo?
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Player ratings
Emin Bayram spends the afternoon fouling
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
280 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Reading come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Westerlo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Doğucan Haspolat and Westerlo agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Doğucan Haspolat 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Club Brugge left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Westerlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serhiy Sydorchuk 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Bryan Reynolds did the work nobody counts — 6.61
9 combined actions and 6.61. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Market3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Doğucan Haspolat’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.