Marked for David Pollet
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
18 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hans Alderweireld damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Leander Batshuayi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The scrutiny sharpens at Lokeren
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokeren is running low.
Squad7 Dec 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 Lokeren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dante Rigo 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
17 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokeren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at Lokeren spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Dante Rigo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Lokeren
Zayd El Kandoussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Dante Rigo 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lokeren will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leander Batshuayi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lokeren dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2026
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokeren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 16 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Lokeren
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dante Rigo 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of David Pollet
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Lokeren had all but put away. KV Kortrijk will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Lokeren
15 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hans Alderweireld
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokeren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Lokeren
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Lokeren
Antoine Lejoly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Lokeren
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dante Rigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to KV Oostende, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leander Batshuayi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
No place for Mauricio Liñán in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Lokeren's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokeren has to find a result from somewhere.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Lokeren
0‑7 against Sint-Truiden, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match26 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 16 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Lokeren
Ismail Azzaoui 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Lokeren and Sint-Truiden, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Lokeren
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dante Rigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of David Pollet
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Lokeren
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ismail Azzaoui 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Lokeren
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dante Rigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Oct 2026
Westerlo left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Arno Valkenaers
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Leander Batshuayi to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
No place for Ilann Petrisot in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
David Pollet asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Lokeren
1‑5 against KV Mechelen, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Lokeren
Position 16 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match26 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Lokeren
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Lokeren are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Lokeren
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lokeren and KV Mechelen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dante Rigo 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Jarno Libert 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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to KV Oostende this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Lokeren — 7.71
1 for Zayd El Kandoussi, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Lokeren
Antoine Lejoly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dante Rigo 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mouscron have kept their man, and Lokeren go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Zulte Waregem left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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 dugout24 Aug 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Leander Batshuayi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Modeste Duku in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Lokeren
A 0‑25 beating by KV Oostende was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Antoine Lejoly would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antoine Lejoly is living that version at Lokeren, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Lokeren have gone to Mouscron 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 targets3 Aug 2026
$220.0K on the table at KV Kortrijk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Antoine Lejoly 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
Nobody could stop scoring
25 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lokeren and KV Oostende in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dante Rigo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
No place for Dante Rigo in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokeren are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑25, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
-
Market
Lokeren bring in an old head
-
Market
Experience through the door at Lokeren
-
Market
Experience through the door at Lokeren