Marked for André-Pierre Gignac
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
Dennis Ayensa 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.
Match25 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 win over KV Mechelen, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑4 beating by KV Oostende was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
The dugout30 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Josué Homawoo 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 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 1‑4 Simon Januzaj left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dennis Ayensa damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Standard Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Club Brugge, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Josué Homawoo
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad19 Oct 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mojmír Chytil'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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dennis Ayensa
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Standard Liege lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
At 40 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.78, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
David Bates: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Standard Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Standard Liege and KV Mechelen, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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; Standard Liege are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Maximiliano Caufriez 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 terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dennis Ayensa
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Standard Liege lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
At 40 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.34, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Tobias Mohr beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Steven Bergwijn. 3‑1 against Lokeren, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Adnane Abid and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.13 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dennis Ayensa
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Standard Liege lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 40 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.80, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from KV Oostende for Henry Lawrence was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Standard Liege heard it as anything else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Standard Liege had all but put away. OH Leuven will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad14 Sep 2026
17 new faces, and Standard Liege 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Standard Liege can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dennis Ayensa
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Standard Liege lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Sep 2026
Zulte Waregem will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Standard Liege were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market7 Sep 2026
Marlon Fossey hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.63, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Ibrahim Karamoko to Cardiff City has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Standard Liege with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.59 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 2026
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Daniel Karlsbakk comes from Sarpsborg 08 for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 10 in, 3 out at Standard Liege
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Al-Ittihad did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.3M for Steven Bergwijn, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charleroi have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Mohammed El Hankouri has left for Al Ahli in a $3.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market10 Aug 2026
Charleroi 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.8M — a club that wants Aiham Ousou 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
Josué Homawoo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Marlon Fossey'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.