It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
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.
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 Hassane Bandé is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jasper Dahlhaus has written the date down.
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
“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 Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
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.
A brace, and Indy Boonen takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Indy Boonen provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
A 2‑2 draw with RAAL La Louviere leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Toby Doku was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the KV Mechelen dressing room was either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Klein has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
The deal that would have taken Daniel Klein to Cercle Brugge has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to KV Mechelen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Noubissi 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Patro Eisden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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 KV Mechelen know it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KV Mechelen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at KV Mechelen 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Mechelen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mervin Gbeme is 20, and KV Mechelen have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Olympic Charleroi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Simion Michez. The answer from KV Mechelen has not changed — yet.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Toby Doku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dedryck De Ketelaere 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. Romelu Kompany 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. Christian Doku 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 18336. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
The offer from Seraing for Bilal Bafdili 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 Jul 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
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.
The offer from Heracles for Bouke Boersma 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KV Mechelen asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. KV Mechelen have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
KV Mechelen asked and Union SG said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bilal Bafdili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Nantes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at KV Mechelen and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
24 games and 8 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
Bilal Bafdili 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.
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 Hassane Bandé is on it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Apr 2027
José Marsà 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Amine Chakir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Junior Ngambi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 goals in 27 games at Den Bosch — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Mechelen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Damien Mouchamps 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 KV Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Rak-Sakyi 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 Bilal Bafdili is on it.
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 KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and KV Mechelen have no good answer.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Den Bosch suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to KV Mechelen, and the summer will force it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Daniel Klein a promise