46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zulte Waregem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Amine Harit 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dirk Asare trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
21 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zulte Waregem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zulte Waregem is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Zulte Waregem know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zulte Waregem, another week without a signature from Alberto Dossena.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zulte Waregem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Zulte Waregem know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zulte Waregem know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Amine Harit 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zulte Waregem can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lucas Lissens has his answer from Zulte Waregem; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
7 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Zulte Waregem pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Zulte Waregem hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Amine Harit 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 Nikolas Sattlberger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.95 beside his name.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zulte Waregem and Anderlecht in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Sattlberger 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 words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
0‑3 against Racing Genk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Amine Harit 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ebaldo Pérez is living that version at Zulte Waregem, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Sattlberger 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.
Zulte Waregem asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Zulte Waregem close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Amine Harit 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Sattlberger 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.
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Amine Harit 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Sattlberger 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Nantes have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem 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 Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
7 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Amine Harit 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ilay Feingold and Zulte Waregem agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Zulte Waregem, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zulte Waregem are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem 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 Christopher Lannert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zulte Waregem will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zulte Waregem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Balthazar Pierret scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Amine Harit 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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 Zulte Waregem know it.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mher Harutyunyan is living that version at Zulte Waregem, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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 0‑1 Simon De Bruyne left the room before anybody could ask which.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem 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 Thomas Claes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simon De Bruyne after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad27 Nov 2028
5 new faces, and Zulte Waregem 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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zulte Waregem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Christopher Lannert has agreed terms with KV Kortrijk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Amine Harit 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 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaïus Makouta 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 Ilay Feingold is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Siebe Van Keymolen has his answer from Zulte Waregem; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Zulte Waregem man
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
1 for Balthazar Pierret, marked 7.70, 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Erick 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.
Amine Harit 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 words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jevon Simons will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zulte Waregem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zulte Waregem can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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 words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Darnell Furlong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zulte Waregem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for Gaïus Makouta, marked 7.90, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Gaïus Makouta 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
5 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.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zulte Waregem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Balthazar Pierret is living that version at Zulte Waregem, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zulte Waregem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thomas Claes. 2‑0 against Westerlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Malick Mbaye was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulte Waregem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 7.70 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 Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 combined actions and 7.82. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Walid Ould-Chikh, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Benedetti 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 words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
0‑3 to Club Brugge, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zulte Waregem can pretend not to have heard.
Amine Harit 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zulte Waregem are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Heule will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zulte Waregem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Amine Harit 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Claes 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 words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zulte Waregem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zulte Waregem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade Brestois keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 16 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Zulte Waregem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Benedetti 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.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympique de Marseille lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique de Marseille will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Le Puy Foot 43 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.0M of what Olympique de Marseille paid for Harouna Djibirin is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“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 Olympique de Marseille, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdel Medioub will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympique de Marseille the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousmane Camara 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 Francisco Trincão is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympique de Marseille, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vangelis Pavlidis signs something — a contract at Olympique de Marseille or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Valenciennes can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hervé Boua Dié 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 Valenciennes know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zak Swanson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Valenciennes would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valenciennes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gaëtan Courtet and Valenciennes agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Amine Harit 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.
He is 22 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rémy Boissier, and the manager let it.
Squad8 May 2028
Zak Swanson 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 ratings8 May 2028
Amine Harit was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Amine Harit 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Charles Abi. 3‑1 against SC Aubagne Air Bel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Pellegrini 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.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout1 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rémi Rey, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Henri Lambert has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandre Deschamps has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Guillaume has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Henri Leclercq has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zak Swanson 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valenciennes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valenciennes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Amine Harit 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mabrouk Rouaï. 2‑1 against Amiens SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Amine Harit was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valenciennes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valenciennes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Amine Harit 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 Zak Swanson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Teddy Okou.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valenciennes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Valenciennes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Valenciennes know now that the thought has arrived.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Teddy Okou’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Valenciennes needing him to play as if none of it matters.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valenciennes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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 Valenciennes know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valenciennes told Amine Harit something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Eric Bocat
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valenciennes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valenciennes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Charles Abi decided nobody was going anywhere. US Concarneau had no time left to answer.
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valenciennes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Amine Harit 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mabrouk Rouaï and Valenciennes agree another 3 years.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdelwahed Wahib has his answer from Valenciennes; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alaa Bakir 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lishad Kouassi Leclercq is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valenciennes, another week without a signature from Alaa Bakir.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Paris 13 Atletico? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Valenciennes asked and Stade Brestois said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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. 17 actions, 7.31, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valenciennes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Amine Harit 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.
A 2‑1 win over LB Chateauroux, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valenciennes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
$6.3M on the table at Stade Brestois. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Amine Harit 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match5 Feb 2028
After 6 games, Valenciennes finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Stade Briochin; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The offer from Sparta Rotterdam for Jeffrey de Lange 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Olympique de Marseille had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Olympique de Marseille have gone to LOSC Lille 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.
The offer went to Toulouse FC 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$740.0K on the table at RC Lens. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match30 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
8 on the bounce on the road for Olympique de Marseille. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
3‑0 against Goztepe, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympique de Marseille may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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 6.44 for the rest of it.
Dmytro Riznyk 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.
A performance of 8.63 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Igor Paixão was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Amine Harit at his very best