Sint-Truiden have accepted the money. What Antwerp do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Standard Liege were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Atyrau for Muhammadali O'rinboyev 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympique de Marseille keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The enquiry everybody at Antwerp was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Toon Janssen is living that version at Antwerp, and it tends to show in the first month.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Antwerp have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Antwerp
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Antwerp have paid $3.7M for Fadel Gobitaka, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fadel Gobitaka is living that version at Antwerp, and it tends to show in the first month.
The fee is $240.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. KV Kortrijk drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Fadel Gobitaka was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Kiki Kouyaté 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.
Antwerp asked and Ajax 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 Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Antwerp has been clear about where Geoffry Hairemans stands, which is more than many ever get.
RFC Liege have accepted the money. What Antwerp do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Antwerp asked and Olympic Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Antwerp have gone to KV Kortrijk 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.
Kiki Kouyaté and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Geoffry Hairemans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Antwerp people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Antwerp have gone to RFC Liege 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.
Antwerp asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Janssen 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDaam Foulon is still being punished for one mistake
“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 Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $2.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Patro Eisden drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Antwerp will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
$2.1M on the table at Patro Eisden. 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 shirt still fits. Ortwin De Wolf is back at Antwerp, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Antwerp will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Kiki Kouyaté 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yllan Okou is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The offer went to KV Mechelen 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.
Kiki Kouyaté 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Janssen 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 Thibo Somers is on it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Seraing have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
A loan enquiry to Heerenveen: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Daam Foulon is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
Jason Denayer 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Antwerp told Jason Denayer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad31 May 2027
Yllan Okou 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.
Kiki Kouyaté was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yannick Thoelen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Antwerp. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Kiki Kouyaté and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Antwerp. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Steve N'Goura 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yllan Okou 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Vincent Janssen 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 Rein Van Helden 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 Antwerp the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antwerp have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Janssen 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Kiki Kouyaté 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 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.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
Kiki Kouyaté was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yllan Okou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Antwerp have no good answer.
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 Rein Van Helden has written the date down.
Jason Denayer 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 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Antwerp know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Yannick Thoelen has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Kiki Kouyaté and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Janssen 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.
Everybody at Antwerp saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutSteve N'Goura knocks on the manager’s door
Kiki Kouyaté and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yllan Okou 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 Rein Van Helden 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antwerp, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Antwerp the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Antwerp know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Janssen 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 Antwerp 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Antwerp told Yllan Okou something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp 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 Vincent Janssen 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 Antwerp can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Bernt Klaverboer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Vincent Janssen is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Antwerp know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antwerp have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 combined actions and 6.97. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Racing Genk left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yllan Okou 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaac Babadi did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Kiki Kouyaté 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 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.
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 Antwerp know it.
Something was said to Isaac Babadi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
At 21, Isaac Babadi is already the best thing here
An average of 7.09 in a first team he is several years too young for. Antwerp have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Dries Doku left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
48 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Yllan Okou 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Dries Doku to a room that had heard them before.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Janssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Antwerp have lost him in all but the paperwork.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Antwerp 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Club Brugge; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Yuto Tsunashima 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 21, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Kiki Kouyaté 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Westerlo have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Zeno Van Den Bosch again, and this time the name on the line is Roda. Antwerp are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Antwerp know it.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Francs Borains paid $4.3M and Antwerp took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The chase for Steve N'Goura ended with $1.8M changing hands and Cercle Brugge out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Legia is saying, and nobody at Antwerp is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Antwerp asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsThibo Somers beats them one at a time
Charleroi go through and Antwerp go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Everything agreed with Cercle Brugge, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The name of Gyrano Kerk has come up in conversations Antwerp were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mauricio Benítez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Antwerp had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsMarwan Al-Sahafi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A season average of 7.09 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Antwerp know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Yuto Tsunashima 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dries Doku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Isaac Babadi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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 phone has started ringing about Gyrano Kerk again, and this time the name on the line is Newell's Old Boys. Antwerp are listening politely and promising nothing.
A 3‑1 win over Zulte Waregem, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Dries Doku could afford to be generous.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Glenn Bijl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yllan Okou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dries Doku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Antwerp has been clear about where Zeno Van Den Bosch stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Yuto Tsunashima and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daam Foulon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Isaac Babadi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Isaac Babadi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Antwerp have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Cercle Brugge next, and one man in the Antwerp dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaac Babadi did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Yuto Tsunashima was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Isaac Babadi 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.
200 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Antwerp game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at KV Mechelen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dries Doku after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yllan Okou 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
Nobody at Antwerp is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Jason Denayer and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daam Foulon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Antwerp will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antwerp, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dennis Praet’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Antwerp needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Antwerp know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Muhammadali O'rinboyev provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.79, 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.
Yuto Tsunashima 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. KV Kortrijk spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Antwerp know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and OH Leuven were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vincent Janssen. 3‑2 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. OH Leuven tried to reorganise, Antwerp did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Glenn Bijl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Isaac Babadi is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Antwerp will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Glenn Bijl and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daam Foulon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Antwerp, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
7.31, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Antwerp had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dries Doku was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Antwerp dressing room was either.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Isaac Babadi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 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 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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. RAAL La Louviere had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daam Foulon 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dries Doku after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Yuto Tsunashima and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daam Foulon and Antwerp agree another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Antwerp 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yllan Okou’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Antwerp needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
0‑3 to Club Brugge, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Yuto Tsunashima 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Antwerp is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Daam Foulon 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Antwerp 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.
Jason Denayer 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.65 on the card, and the Antwerp support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dries Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Club Brugge.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaac Babadi did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Kosuke Nakamura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yllan Okou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daam Foulon’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Antwerp needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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 Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antwerp asked and Heidenheim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Antwerp 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daam Foulon 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daam Foulon’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Antwerp needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Antwerp will try again when the window opens; KAA Gent may not be selling by then.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Antwerp asked and CSKA 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daam Foulon 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against KAA Gent in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Antwerp would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutVincent Janssen has become a man the manager trusts
A 2‑1 win over Waasland-Beveren, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Waasland-Beveren will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaac Babadi did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gamba Osaka have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Charleroi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The chase for Yllan Okou ended with $820.0K changing hands and RAAL La Louviere out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Antwerp asked and KAA Gent 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Isaac Babadi 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 offer went to KV Kortrijk 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.
Antwerp have gone to RAAL La Louviere 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.
Antwerp had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Paris FC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Antwerp asked and Waasland-Beveren said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Yuto Tsunashima and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
6 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 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Christophe Janssens enough to be asked twice.
Antwerp offered $960.0K; Waasland-Beveren 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.
Jason Denayer 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.
Yuto Tsunashima 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.
Minute 94, against Dender, 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Jesus David and Antwerp agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.