Marked for Léo Schwechlen
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dedryck Mignolet
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Oostende lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 May 2027
KV Oostende are in real trouble now
Position 15, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market10 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at KV Oostende, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 May 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 May 2027
Christian Batshuayi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
José Lima 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 dugout10 May 2027
“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 dugout10 May 2027
Michaël Heylen 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.
Market10 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Batshuayi signs something — a contract at KV Oostende or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Apr 2027
Supporters organise against the KV Oostende board
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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Léo Schwechlen: 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.” KV Oostende have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Christian Batshuayi 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 Apr 2027
José Lima 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Gabi Caschili
“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 Apr 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KV Oostende will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market19 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Romelu Vanaken signs something — a contract at KV Oostende or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market19 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KV Oostende, another week without a signature from Alan Fernando Gutierrez.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Supporters organise against the KV Oostende board
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Christian Batshuayi 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romelu Vanaken 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Romelu Vanaken signs something — a contract at KV Oostende or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market22 Feb 2027
César Taján is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Oostende has been clear about where César Taján stands, which is more than many ever get.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
The José Lima rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. KV Oostende would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Oostende. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market22 Feb 2027
KV Oostende have let the market know Léo Schwechlen can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Oostende, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
20 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Dec 2026
José Lima wants to know where this is going
“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 KV Oostende hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Armindo Sieb 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Club Brugge left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Lima 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Too much change too quickly at KV Oostende
7 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.
The dugout14 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Thorgan De Ketelaere to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to KV Oostende's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KV Oostende has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Armindo Sieb 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 terraces21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Souprayen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
One of those days for José Lima
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Léo Schwechlen commits to KV Oostende for another 2 years.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Sint-Truiden leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thorgan De Ketelaere after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.