Marked for Patrick Pflücke
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
Charleroi march on in the cup
Sint-Truiden are out and Charleroi go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match29 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Charleroi scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A debut Alexandre Carl will not forget — 7.24
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.24 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Yassine Khalifi at 21 — 8.20
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yassine Khalifi did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacine Titraoui 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Westerlo made Charleroi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Anderlecht come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Charleroi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Charleroi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Paco Alcácer 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
FC Nantes come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Charleroi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
86 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Charleroi know what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Isaac Mbenza and Charleroi agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Parfait Guiagon 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Aiham Ousou at his very best
Marked 9.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Charleroi.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Yacine Titraoui’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.