A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS Roma will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fiorentina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Palermo moved on, Maurits Kjærgaard reports back to AS Roma, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Alieu Njie decided nobody was going anywhere. Spezia had no time left to answer.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AS Roma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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 The request is on a desk at RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kacper Śmiglewski 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and RWDM know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gui trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Zieliński signs something — a contract at RWDM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RWDM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vladan Čarapić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gui trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RWDM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luke Cundle 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at RWDM, another week without a signature from Gui.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Riley Carr is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Gui was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Gui 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Othmane El Idrissi 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 Apr 2035
Kwasi Poku 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; RWDM are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RWDM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Zieliński signs something — a contract at RWDM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Othmane El Idrissi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RWDM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
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 Samuel Martínez is on it.
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.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RWDM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kacper Śmiglewski 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Kacper Śmiglewski 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Zieliński signs something — a contract at RWDM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Geovanny Almeida is on it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 30 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RWDM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Othmane El Idrissi has agreed terms with Standard Liege for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; RWDM are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kacper Śmiglewski 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niklas Niehoff trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 7.88 for the rest of 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 RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and RWDM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
RWDM ran out of time with RAAL La Louviere. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vojvodina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at RWDM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Máximo Palazzo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RWDM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with RAAL La Louviere, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Gui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Kwasi Poku 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at RWDM can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Yacouba Barry 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RWDM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and RWDM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RWDM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yacouba Barry 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at RWDM, another week without a signature from Gui.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and RWDM know it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RWDM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RWDM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julián Scafati will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RWDM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Julián Scafati has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Yacouba Barry 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Kwasi Poku 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RWDM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 RWDM, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Máximo Palazzo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Poku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RWDM can pretend not to have heard.
Gui 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Kwasi Poku 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
13 new faces, and RWDM 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation RWDM are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Jakub Zieliński'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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Selwyn Stevens is living that version at RWDM, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 7.76 for the rest of it.
Yacouba Barry 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.
Marked 7.93. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Kwasi Poku 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RWDM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RWDM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Union SG go through and RWDM go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at RWDM, another week without a signature from Othmane El Idrissi.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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 RWDM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Poku 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.
Lommel will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Teo Ingilæ has pre-agreed a move to RWDM, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad16 Oct 2034
8 new faces, and RWDM 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at RWDM has been clear about where Yanis Benchaouch stands, which is more than many ever get.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RWDM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yeimar Córdoba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RWDM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Gui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Kwasi Poku 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 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. 12 actions, 7.04, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luke Cundle. 1‑0 against KV Kortrijk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.