“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charleroi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Maarten Paes 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 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Isaac Cissé commits to Charleroi for another 5 years.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Hans Januzaj left the room before anybody could ask which.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Charleroi can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Charleroi will try again when the window opens; RWDM may not be selling by then.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Valentín Adamo wants continental football; whether Charleroi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Allan Verlinden has, at Charleroi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray 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 watch every Charleroi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Borneo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Standard Liege moved on, Aurélien Scheidler reports back to Charleroi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Antoine Colassin was one of the reasons people came, and $14.4M does not replace that by itself.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriele Biancheri has, at Charleroi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Charleroi asked and OH Leuven said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Racing Genk paid $1.2M and Charleroi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
“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; Charleroi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Anderlecht have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antoine Colassin. The answer from Charleroi has not changed — yet.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. RWDM drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ajax is saying, and nobody at Charleroi is enjoying the guessing.
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Diego Da Silva Sousa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Charleroi have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KV Kortrijk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1‑4 against Racing Genk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Yeray 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RWDM have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Zulte Waregem have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mondy Prunier. The answer from Charleroi has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoine Colassin 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 Charleroi has been clear about where Kévin Van Den Kerkhof stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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. Charleroi will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
OH Leuven made Charleroi work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Yusuke Matsuo 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.
7 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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Enric Llansana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Setigui Karamoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hans Januzaj after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Maarten Paes 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 Antoine Colassin 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 Antoine Colassin is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hans Januzaj after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
0‑2 away to the standard of Young Boys. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
5 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.
Aiham Ousou 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoine Colassin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Charleroi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Borneo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 dugout6 Dec 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 0‑2 Hans Januzaj left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Enric Llansana is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Charleroi, another week without a signature from Théo Defourny.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑4. Paris Saint-Germain play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Position 2, 29 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Charleroi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Half the programme played, position 2, 29 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1 for Enric Llansana, marked 7.90, 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.
Maarten Paes 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 Antoine Colassin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antoine Colassin. 2‑0 against Antwerp, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Toshikazu Teruuchi and Charleroi agree another 4 years.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Setigui Karamoko 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 Charleroi, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Charleroi has been clear about where Mondy Prunier 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑1 away to the standard of Polissia. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Colassin 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.
Alouis Diriken 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 Anthony Descotte.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A mark of 7.87 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.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3‑1 against Polissia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 9.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Enric Llansana scored, was marked 7.61, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoine Colassin 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 Yusuke Matsuo is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Théo Defourny
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Colassin 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 Charleroi, and 5 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Enric Llansana is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
0‑2 against Young Boys. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
17 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Antoine Colassin 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Enric Llansana, marked 7.90, 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.
“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; Charleroi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maarten Paes 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑2 against Paris Saint-Germain. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Aiham Ousou 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Colassin 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: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Maarten Paes 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Charleroi will try again when the window opens; RWDM may not be selling by then.
“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 Charleroi, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
200 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 clock did what IF Elfsborg would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Charleroi close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Charleroi have done the hard part with Sint-Truiden, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Charleroi 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
SquadWords at Charleroi training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Charleroi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to IF Elfsborg 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 Alexis Beka Beka ended with $3.2M 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.
$55.0K on the table at Cercle Brugge. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Colassin 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.
Charleroi asked and Sint-Truiden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maarten Paes 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.
Charleroi offered $470.0K; Zulte Waregem 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Setigui Karamoko 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 Enric Llansana is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hans Januzaj after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Théo Defourny
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Enric Llansana scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Enric Llansana’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Charleroi.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Colassin 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.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Seraing have kept their man, and Charleroi 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 Antoine Colassin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Charleroi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Aiham Ousou 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yusuke Matsuo has his answer from Charleroi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Charleroi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Charleroi
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Timothy Mignolet 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. Radja Januzaj is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from Lokomotiv Sofia for Andrej Vasović 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enric Llansana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Charleroi asked and Sint-Truiden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Aurélien Scheidler is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aiham Ousou signs something — a contract at Charleroi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The phone has started ringing about Isaac Mbenza again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. Charleroi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Antoine Colassin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Descotte, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Isaac Mbenza 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.
13 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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Charleroi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Olympic Charleroi wanted more than $3.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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 Hasan Jahić enough to be asked twice.
Aiham Ousou 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Charleroi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
The offer went to Olympic Charleroi 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 $3.6M — a club that wants Luca Ferrara enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade Rennais is saying, and nobody at Charleroi is enjoying the guessing.
At 19 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.
Antoine Colassin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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 words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Everything agreed with Stade Rennais, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Enric Llansana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
The deal with Club Brugge is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The phone has started ringing about Isaac Mbenza again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. Charleroi are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
Amine Boukamir 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.
Argus Vanden Driessche is 20, and Charleroi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enric Llansana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antwerp have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Amine Boukamir commits to Charleroi for another 4 years.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Aiham Ousou'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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Charleroi is running low.
24 games, 12 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Charleroi now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Mbenza 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.
Antoine Colassin 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 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 Patrick Pflücke 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 Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aiham Ousou signs something — a contract at Charleroi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
Toshikazu Teruuchi 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.
Nobody at Charleroi 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 Aurélien Scheidler signs something — a contract at Charleroi 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 Setigui Karamoko has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Mbenza 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 dugout10 May 2027
Aiham Ousou 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.
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 Aurélien Scheidler 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 Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Charleroi than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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 Kévin Van Den Kerkhof has written the date down.
Carlos Forbs 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 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 Aiham Ousou signs something — a contract at Charleroi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Charleroi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Patrick Pflücke plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Position 12 on 32 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Isaac Mbenza falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Carlos Forbs is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Charleroi will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
Cheick Keita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Charleroi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Aiham Ousou'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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Charleroi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Enric Llansana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gaku Nawata is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Isaac Mbenza 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.
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.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
Antoine Colassin 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 has had enough of the noise. Whether Charleroi can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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 Isaac Mbenza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
7 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 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Charleroi pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAiham Ousou is still being punished for one mistake
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Mbenza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Charleroi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximiliano Caufriez and Charleroi agree another 3 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Charleroi 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 Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Mbenza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Charleroi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 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.
“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; Charleroi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
1‑3 to Antwerp, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Mbenza 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout1 Mar 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 Hans Januzaj to a room that had heard them before.
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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Charleroi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 against Sint-Truiden, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
1‑2 against KAA Gent, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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 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 Charleroi 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. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Charleroi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.64 for the rest of it.
Aiham Ousou 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.
Charleroi asked and Gamba Osaka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Isaac Mbenza 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.
10 goals in 18 games at Etar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Charleroi updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Charleroi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“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; Charleroi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout8 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Hans Januzaj to a room that had heard them before.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aiham Ousou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.81, and 3 involvements.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Yokohama F. Marinos is saying, and nobody at Charleroi is enjoying the guessing.
Enric Llansana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Charleroi asked and FC Metz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
8.15. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Seraing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Charleroi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Patrick Pflücke will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Charleroi escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Anderlecht for Antoine Colassin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Aiham Ousou again, and this time the name on the line is Lokeren-Temse. Charleroi are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Yokohama F. Marinos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Enric Llansana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Lorient have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Charleroi training over how hard people work
The offer from Telstar for Yusuke Matsuo 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Charleroi and KV Mechelen have settled on $1.7M. 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KV Mechelen have kept their man, and Charleroi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Patrick Pflücke 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Zsombor Riba’s exile
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Beerschot for Aiham Ousou was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
At 23 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 phone has started ringing about Antoine Colassin again, and this time the name on the line is Anderlecht. Charleroi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Charleroi 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.
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
SquadIsaac Mbenza falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Severin Nioule is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hans Januzaj after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Patrick Pflücke 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 Charleroi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Charleroi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Jim Croqué and Charleroi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Hans Januzaj, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutYusuke Matsuo has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Théo Defourny
2‑0 against Widzew Łódź, 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. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.91. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Charleroi and RAAL La Louviere in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jim Croqué has, at Charleroi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Severin Nioule 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Antoine Colassin at his very best
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.
Antoine Colassin 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.01, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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 Aurélien Scheidler is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2‑1 against Excelsior, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas was at the centre of the description.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Enric Llansana scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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 Charleroi know it.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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.
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 at Charleroi 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Aiham Ousou 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
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.
Nobody at Charleroi 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑5. Dynamo Kyiv play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Charleroi and Dynamo Kyiv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enric Llansana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Charleroi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Setigui Karamoko 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.
2‑4 against Dynamo Kyiv, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Charleroi and Dynamo Kyiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enric Llansana 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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 Oct 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Setigui Karamoko 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 Charleroi 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 Aurélien Scheidler signs something — a contract at Charleroi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zulte Waregem in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
4‑2 against Widzew Łódź, 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Severin Nioule did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 19 combined actions and a mark of 7.59, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
“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; Charleroi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Maximiliano Caufriez 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Charleroi and Widzew Łódź, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Aiham Ousou 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Théo Defourny knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Nobody at Charleroi 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.
1‑1 against Excelsior, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Yusuke Matsuo was at the centre of the description.
Aiham Ousou 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. Gamba Osaka have kept their man, and Charleroi 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 Setigui Karamoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Charleroi had all but put away. Excelsior will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Charleroi dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
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.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Charleroi will try again when the window opens; Beerschot may not be selling by then.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Beerschot; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Isaac Mbenza reports back to Charleroi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Charleroi 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 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 Oscar Vargas enough to be asked twice.
Enric Llansana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Charleroi asked and Kashima Antlers 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 Mardochée Nzita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Charleroi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gaku Nawata did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Waasland-Beveren 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Monticelli 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Charleroi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Etar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Charleroi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Charleroi have paid $7.9M for Enric Llansana, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Charleroi have gone to Waasland-Beveren 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Aiham Ousou 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 paid $850.0K and Charleroi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Charleroi offered $160.0K; Beerschot 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.
In brief
The terracesThe town asked, and Charleroi paid $7.9M
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Charleroi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $166.9K — a club that wants D'Margio Wright-Phillips enough to be asked twice.
Charleroi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nagoya Grampus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
KAA Gent paid $1.1M and Charleroi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Charleroi asked and Racing Genk 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 words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Anderlecht for Aiham Ousou 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and KAA Gent waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Charleroi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Charleroi have gone to Patro Eisden with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $940.0K — a club that wants Kéres Masangu enough to be asked twice.
Everything agreed with Nagoya Grampus, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Aiham Ousou 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 offer went to Beerschot 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.
Yassine Khalifi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Yassine Khalifi 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 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.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
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.