Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
A 2‑0 win over RAAL La Louviere, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Anderlecht will try again when the window opens; Trabzonspor may not be selling by then.
Anthony Valencia 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Valentin Atangana has come out of that comparison in the side, and Anderlecht have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Maxime Lopez is on it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Anderlecht have paid $12.1M for Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Colin Coosemans 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.
Add another name to the list: Skonto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lukáš Ambros. The answer from Anderlecht has not changed — yet.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Anderlecht pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anderlecht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Anderlecht heard it as anything else.
Enric Llansana 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 watch every Anderlecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heidenheim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Anderlecht will try not to make too much of it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Maxime Lopez is still being punished for one mistake
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adriano Bertaccini provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Maxime Lopez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anderlecht told Valentin Atangana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leander Fellaini on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Maxime Lopez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Anderlecht will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined 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 Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adriano Bertaccini’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Anderlecht needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Seraing go through and Anderlecht go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
OH Leuven made Anderlecht work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ilay Camara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Anderlecht dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Tobias Lawal
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anderlecht lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Enric Llansana 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.
“I watch every Anderlecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heidenheim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Anderlecht prefer.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
9 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anderlecht lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Leander Fellaini, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Kana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Colin Coosemans 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: Maxime Lopez. 3‑1 against Sint-Truiden, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ilay Camara has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
3 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.
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Maxime Lopez is still being punished for one mistake
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Leander Fellaini kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Anderlecht, and it is not being withdrawn.
Anderlecht offered $11.1M; Urawa Reds said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The bid was some way short and Anderlecht did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Anderlecht until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Anderlecht heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Anderlecht will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mario Stroeykens has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
Squad9 new faces, and Anderlecht are still learning each other
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Anderlecht have paid $7.0M for Valentin Atangana, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Valentin Atangana has, at Anderlecht, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$3.0M was the most the club would pay and Lommel were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Yllan Okou enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $31.7M has been paid because Maxime Lopez is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Utrecht pay $8.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Mario Stroeykens, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$4.8M was the most the club would pay and Charleroi were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Anderlecht have gone to Lommel 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Jason van Duiven enough to be asked twice.
Paris FC asked and FC Cincinnati said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
LOSC Lille paid $9.6M and Paris FC took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $31.7M sale of Maxime Lopez
He is going to Anderlecht, the club has $31.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Koleosho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomParis FC turn down the training-ground plan
The clubs have shaken hands with Paris FC; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adriano Bertaccini provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Al-Ahli 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.
Anderlecht have gone to Charleroi 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 from Valur for Samuel Ntanda 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 phone has started ringing about Killian Sardella again, and this time the name on the line is Utrecht. Anderlecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.7M — a club that wants Marcos Peano enough to be asked twice.
Anderlecht have gone to Paris FC 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 from Vitesse for Tristan Degreef 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Colin Coosemans and Anderlecht agree another 2 years.
Marked 7.14 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against 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 Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
The phone has started ringing about Maxime Lopez again, and this time the name on the line is Anderlecht. Paris FC are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
“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; Paris FC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.