There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adriano Bertaccini provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Zeno Debast 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Anderlecht. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Mousa Onana 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.
1‑1 against Malmo FF, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Gedson Fernandes 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 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.
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Anderlecht.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Ilay Camara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 Tristan Degreef.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Malick Mbaye 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Anderlecht. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.” Dries Castagne kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Killian Sardella is on it.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
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.
Something was said to Mihajlo Cvetković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Colin Coosemans’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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adriano Bertaccini provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Stroeykens and Anderlecht agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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: Adriano Bertaccini. 1‑0 against KAA Gent, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Joel Ordóñez 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.
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 Gedson Fernandes is on it.
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.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Galatasaray had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Anderlecht did not stop to explain themselves.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Killian Sardella and Anderlecht agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Anderlecht ran out of time with RWDM. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Anderlecht are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Zeno Debast is living that version at Anderlecht, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Zeno Debast 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Zeno Debast is a Anderlecht player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
6 goals in one match, Mario Stroeykens on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Anderlecht and Union SG.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Anderlecht will try again when the window opens; RWDM may not be selling by then.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mario Stroeykens. 4‑2 against Union SG, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer from Antwerp for Danylo Sikan 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Malick Mbaye had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 18 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Ali Loune enough to be asked twice.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
“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.
The clubs have shaken hands with RWDM; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The chase for Yacouba Barry ended with $1.8M changing hands and RWDM out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 Valentín Adamo 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yacouba Barry has just signed for Anderlecht, and for once the answer mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joshua Nga Kana is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dries Castagne after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The chase for Tobias Lawal ended with $1.4M changing hands and Racing Genk out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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 every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tobias Lawal is living that version at Anderlecht, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anderlecht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Club Brugge next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Tobias Lawal
Racing Genk have accepted the money. What Anderlecht do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gedson Fernandes and Anderlecht agree another 4 years.
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.
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.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dries Castagne was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Anderlecht dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
7.98, 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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; Anderlecht are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 18 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Standard Liege on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
11 academy players handed senior numbers at Anderlecht
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Léo Pétrot 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 phone has started ringing about Terry Van De Ven again, and this time the name on the line is Beerschot. Anderlecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nacer Nainggolan 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adnan Mertens is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Charles Tielemans is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 Mario Stroeykens 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 Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
KV Kortrijk paid $520.0K and Anderlecht took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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 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.
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 Anderlecht would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Position 2, 60 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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gedson Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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 Camara is on it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Moussa Ndiaye has moved up it.
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 Mario Stroeykens is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mario Stroeykens signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Anderlecht has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Anderlecht asked and Lommel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marco Kana has left for Seraing in a $2.9M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrew Omobamidele 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 Anderlecht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Anderlecht are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Anderlecht would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The chase for Ryotaro Ito ended with $12.0M changing hands and Sint-Truiden out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Anderlecht asked and Lommel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ryotaro Ito is living that version at Anderlecht, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Eupen for Justin Heekeren 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.
“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 Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ryotaro Ito from Sint-Truiden for $12.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Anderlecht have gone to Sint-Truiden 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.
“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 Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 18 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.
Léo Pétrot 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 phone has started ringing about Justin Heekeren again, and this time the name on the line is Eupen. Anderlecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Omobamidele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Adriano Bertaccini is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mario Stroeykens signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Anderlecht would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Anderlecht will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
15 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gedson Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 60 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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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 Mario Stroeykens is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anderlecht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Anderlecht the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrew Omobamidele 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.
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.
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 Dennis Praet has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Anderlecht the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
BoardroomThe Anderlecht board put their names to it
40Edition
The Anderlecht Chronicle
3 May 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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.
Mamadou Barry 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.
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.
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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danylo Sikan signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Omobamidele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Gedson Fernandes 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 Anderlecht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7 appearances at Sint-Truiden and the goals have stopped going in. Anderlecht lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriano Bertaccini signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Dennis Praet has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Anderlecht the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The agreement at Lokeren-Temse has 40 days left in it, with 26 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
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 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 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 Anderlecht know it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and Anderlecht 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.
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 Adriano Bertaccini is on 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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Omobamidele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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 Gedson Fernandes is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anderlecht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 shut-outs in 7 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Justin Heekeren has been having a lot of them.
1‑4 against Porto. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lukáš Ambros had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Gedson Fernandes, marked 7.50, 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.
At 18 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.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
“The easiest signature of my career.” Terry Van De Ven and Anderlecht agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The phone has started ringing about Lukáš Ambros again, and this time the name on the line is Skeid. Anderlecht are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriano Bertaccini signs something — a contract at Anderlecht or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.97
A mark of 7.97 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Gedson Fernandes 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrew Omobamidele 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tristan Degreef 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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑3 against Porto, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
The offer from Kristiansund for Mamadou Barry 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anderlecht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Jayden Oosterwolde 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gedson Fernandes. 3‑1 against Westerlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The name of Mamadou Barry has come up in conversations Anderlecht were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
3‑0, and Danylo Sikan took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Anderlecht tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Danylo Sikan takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danylo Sikan provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Anderlecht asked and Lommel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Gomel for Lukáš Ambros 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gorak Ghale has agreed terms with Olympic Charleroi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Omobamidele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑0 against Club Brugge, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Anderlecht asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Anderlecht support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
“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 Anderlecht hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Michiel Haentjens 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.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gedson Fernandes 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Anderlecht, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $21.4M has been paid because Jayden Oosterwolde is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Anderlecht have gone to OH Leuven 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.
Anderlecht asked and Toulouse FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Anderlecht and Antwerp have settled on $26.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
Anderlecht have gone to Fenerbahce 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.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
$18.4M was the most the club would pay and Cremonese 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.
Position 2, 45 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lommel have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Killian Sardella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympic Charleroi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Anderlecht have paid $16.9M for Gedson Fernandes, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$17.1M on the table at Cremonese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Anderlecht asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Anderlecht and Antwerp have settled on $880.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The fee is $3.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Racing Genk drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Gedson Fernandes from Spartak Moscow for $16.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The offer went to Spartak Moscow 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Anderlecht is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Everything agreed with Racing Genk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Elyèss Dao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer went to Zenit 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.
$12.3M on the table at Al-Hilal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Anderlecht offered $13.0M; Racing Genk 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Anderlecht have had the benefit of it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anderlecht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilay Camara. 2‑1 against Cercle Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Oriol Busquets has his answer from Anderlecht; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dries Castagne on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Camara is on it.
2‑0 against Red Bull Salzburg, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Danylo Sikan was at the centre of the description.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Stroeykens and Anderlecht agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I watch every Anderlecht game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RAAL La Louviere runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ilay Camara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Minute 87, against Standard Liege, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
1‑1 against Mlada Boleslav, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Adriano Bertaccini was at the centre of the description.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Position 3, 30 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.
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.
Standard Liege next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Danylo Sikan
Oleg Reabciuk 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.
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 Killian Sardella is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Charleroi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anderlecht. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
3‑2 against NK Celje, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Danylo Sikan takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danylo Sikan provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anderlecht can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
91 minutes played. Mario Stroeykens found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and NK Celje went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
3‑2 against Club Brugge, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Anderlecht and a story that will outlast his contract.
At 22 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Stroeykens 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Dries Castagne, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Killian Sardella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Club Brugge on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
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 Mario Stroeykens is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Club Brugge in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anderlecht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with KV Mechelen the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Anderlecht will enjoy reviewing.
2‑3 against Red Bull Salzburg, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.85, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Anderlecht, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Anderlecht know it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Vladislav Torop's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Vladislav Torop
9Edition
The Anderlecht Chronicle
28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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.
Oleg Reabciuk 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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marco Kana has his answer from Anderlecht; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
1‑1 against Mlada Boleslav, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Adriano Bertaccini was at the centre of the description.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathys Angély is 19, 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 Killian Sardella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Léo Pétrot 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.
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 Colin Coosemans.
Anderlecht ran out of time with Stoke City. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dries Castagne to a room that had heard them before.
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 Anderlecht would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Stoke City have accepted the money. What Anderlecht do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anderlecht have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Anderlecht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Killian Sardella 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. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anderlecht can pretend not to have heard.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Anderlecht have paid $4.5M for Vladislav Torop, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Anderlecht asked and RFC Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Emmen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Hey. The answer from Anderlecht has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adriano Bertaccini. 2‑0 against Union SG, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Union SG spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
$4.5M on the table at CSKA Moscow. 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zulte Waregem moved on, Samuel Ntanda reports back to Anderlecht, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
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.
Anderlecht have gone to Al-Nassr 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anderlecht have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Anderlecht have gone to Zulte Waregem 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.
$5.1M on the table at Union SG. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Anderlecht 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.
The offer from Vitesse for Justin Heekeren 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.5M — a club that wants Malick Mbaye enough to be asked twice.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Alexis Flips 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 offer from Twente for Killian Sardella 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charleroi have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Mario Stroeykens, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 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.
The offer went to RAAL La Louviere 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.
The chase for Oriol Busquets ended with $1.2M changing hands and Eupen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
At 21 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.
1‑0 against Standard Liege, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Samuel Ntanda, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.02
A mark of 8.02 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and Anderlecht go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
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.
He is 21 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.
Add another name to the list: Ludogorets have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuel Ntanda. The answer from Anderlecht has not changed — yet.