“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at KAA Gent hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The deal that would have taken Mohammed El Âdfaoui to Mouscron has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to KAA Gent with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Lokeren defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 41 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. KAA Gent scored in the 100th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Al Shaab did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.6M for Vinícius Nardo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vinícius Nardo is living that version at KAA Gent, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hong Hyun-Seok 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Atsuki Ito is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Momodou Sonko, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 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 name of Wilfried Kanga has come up in conversations KAA Gent were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. KAA Gent have paid $1.2M for Yuri Tanque, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Davy Roef was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tibe De Vlieger. 3‑2 against Westerlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Momodou Sonko 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 from Charleroi for Davy Roef 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tibe De Vlieger did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tibe De Vlieger 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 bid was some way short and KAA Gent did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Momodou Sonko, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Atsuki Ito 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 8.64 — 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.