4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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 Davy Roef.
Position 3, 20 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at KAA Gent 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mario Reyes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Delorge signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Steve N'Goura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 Mathias Delorge is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Harrison Burrows trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against KV Mechelen in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KAA Gent would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Up for the corner, and Adem Zorgane delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Adem Zorgane scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Martial Godo has his answer from KAA Gent; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAA Gent told Ilay Camara something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Djaoui Cissé'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.
2‑0 against Austria Wien, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Usman Simbakoli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 dugout17 Sep 2029
Ilay Camara 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.
Kobe Corbanie 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 dugout17 Sep 2029
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 Mario Reyes left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAA Gent lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. KAA Gent will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davy Roef signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $930.6K of what KAA Gent paid for Mathias Fixelles is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 32 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at KAA Gent 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAA Gent lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAA Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A brace, and Mike Trésor takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mike Trésor provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mario Reyes on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAA Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
The offer from Lierse for Momodou Sonko 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.
Steve N'Goura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Momodou Sonko has his answer from KAA Gent; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mike Trésor 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.
A 1‑0 win over Zulte Waregem, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Adem Zorgane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and KAA Gent are still learning each other
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAA Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KAA Gent can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympic Charleroi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Adem Zorgane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sławomir Abramowicz 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 phone has started ringing about Tibe De Vlieger again, and this time the name on the line is Lierse. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Suf Podgoreanu is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tibe De Vlieger will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sławomir Abramowicz 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.
KAA Gent asked and KV Kortrijk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yannick De Ketelaere has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
KAA Gent 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.
Mike Trésor 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Waasland-Beveren will make the call about Usman Simbakoli this week. KAA Gent have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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 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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lierse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
KV Kortrijk have accepted the money. What KAA Gent do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KAA Gent heard it as anything else.
Matisse Samoise 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.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAA Gent lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sławomir Abramowicz 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.
Steve N'Goura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
KAA Gent 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 phone has started ringing about Tibe De Vlieger again, and this time the name on the line is Lierse. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent 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 from Club Brugge for Thibault De Smet was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Antwerp keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Adem Zorgane 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.
KAA Gent asked and Lierse said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KAA Gent have done the hard part with Antwerp, 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 KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
Boardroom95% of the income goes out in wages at KAA Gent
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAA Gent can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
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.
KAA Gent asked and RWDM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KAA Gent has been clear about where Dante Vanzeir stands, which is more than many ever get.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ismaëlo Ganiou has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KAA Gent can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
21 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at KAA Gent now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moctar Diop signs something — a contract at KAA Gent 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 KAA Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and KAA Gent have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Usman Simbakoli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mathias Delorge plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
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.
“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 KAA Gent, and 3 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAA Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at KAA Gent has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tibe De Vlieger will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matisse Samoise was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 KAA Gent, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Suf Podgoreanu is on it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mario Reyes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
14 clean sheets from 34 appearances at Motor Lublin. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAA Gent, another week without a signature from Davy Roef.
Something was said to Davy Roef and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Robbe Mettepenningen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at KAA Gent 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.
Mike Trésor 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moctar Diop signs something — a contract at KAA Gent 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.
Momodou Sonko has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
16 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Davy Roef and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mike Trésor wants continental football; whether KAA Gent can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Antwerp runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation KAA Gent are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. KAA Gent have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Delorge signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
14 clean sheets from 34 appearances at Motor Lublin. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KAA Gent has been clear about where Mike Trésor 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 KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
26 appearances at Levadiakos and the goals have stopped going in. KAA Gent lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAA Gent can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Samuel Kotto 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 watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at KV Mechelen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Davy Roef's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Matisse Samoise and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vitinho wants continental football; whether KAA Gent can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
13 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Motor Lublin. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
8 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.
“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 KAA Gent, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at KAA Gent that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Felix Bacher a promise
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tibe De Vlieger will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Delorge signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
6 goals in 19 games at Eupen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KAA Gent updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 8 on 42 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Mike Trésor 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: Divock Origi. 1‑0 against RAAL La Louviere, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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.” Mario Reyes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutTiago Araújo has become a man the manager trusts
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAA Gent can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Three points for KAA Gent, 2‑0 the final word against Club Brugge in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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.” Mario Reyes, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAA Gent, another week without a signature from Divock Origi.
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.
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 Mathias Delorge.
12 shut-outs in 29 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sławomir Abramowicz has been having a lot of them.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tiago Araújo. 1‑0 against KV Mechelen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Tiago Araújo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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.” Mario Reyes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathias Delorge signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSuf Podgoreanu has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mario Reyes after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mario Reyes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Anderlecht paid $3.1M and KAA Gent took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Darmstadt 98 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 Mike Trésor.
11 shut-outs in 25 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sławomir Abramowicz has been having a lot of them.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ismaëlo Ganiou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Eupen is saying, and nobody at KAA Gent is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
KV Mechelen paid $660.0K and KAA Gent took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAA Gent lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ismaëlo Ganiou has, at KAA Gent, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is going to Anderlecht, the club has $14.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
1 for Adem Zorgane, marked 7.83, 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympic Charleroi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Martial Godo is living that version at KAA Gent, and it tends to show in the first month.
The name of Daisuke Yokota has come up in conversations KAA Gent were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everything agreed with Beerschot, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
7.77, 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KAA Gent heard it as anything else.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cercle Brugge runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ruslan Vydysh has his answer from KAA Gent; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether KAA Gent 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mario Reyes after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadDivock Origi stands down from international duty
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Felix Bacher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mario Reyes could afford to be generous.
9 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Motor Lublin. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mario Reyes on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
8 shut-outs in 18 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sławomir Abramowicz has been having a lot of them.
Squad11 Dec 2028
The division's best last weekend was a KAA Gent man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Dante Vanzeir was the best thing in any of them.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mario Reyes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Dante Vanzeir takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dante Vanzeir provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Position 12, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Mario Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Suf Podgoreanu is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Mike Trésor was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is 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 Divock Origi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
16 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hugo Gambor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAA Gent the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
KV Kortrijk will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. KAA Gent were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
7 goals in one match, Mathias Delorge on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KAA Gent and KV Kortrijk.
“I watch every KAA Gent game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokeren-Temse runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matisse Samoise 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KAA Gent can tell you which week it ends in.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mike Trésor wants continental football; whether KAA Gent can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davy Roef signs something — a contract at KAA Gent or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Suf Podgoreanu is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Felix Bacher has written the date down.
11 appearances at Motor Lublin and the goals have stopped going in. KAA Gent lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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.
Davy Roef 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mario Reyes after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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 KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Something was said to Davy Roef and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mario Reyes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mike Trésor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mike Trésor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutSuf Podgoreanu has become a man the manager trusts
Matisse Samoise was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Tiago Araújo is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adem Zorgane’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and KAA Gent needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Mike Trésor has written the date down.
2 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.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $2.1M of what KAA Gent paid for Yira Sor is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
KAA Gent close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 38 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Francs Borains waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Seraing had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1 for Mathias Delorge, marked 7.87, 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.
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djaoui Cissé 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 phone has started ringing about Yira Sor again, and this time the name on the line is Kano Pillars. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djaoui Cissé 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Grazer AK for Felix Bacher 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.
1 for Adem Zorgane, 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Three points for KAA Gent, 1‑0 the final word against Zulte Waregem in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Paskotši 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAA Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Davy Roef 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djaoui Cissé is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Davy Roef's mistake
Squad10 new faces, and KAA Gent are still learning each other
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lommel have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Djaoui Cissé, marked 7.83, 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.
The offer from Vojvodina for Ibrahima Cissé 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mike Trésor wants continental football; whether KAA Gent can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mike Trésor 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.
Add another name to the list: Olympic Charleroi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tibe De Vlieger. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.
In brief
Boardroom5 academy players handed senior numbers at KAA Gent
SquadWords at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
The offer from MFK Michalovce for László Bénes 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.
Adem Zorgane 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.
“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 KAA Gent know it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jagiellonia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Enyimba for Yira Sor 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lennard Hens has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djaoui Cissé is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Training is not playing and everybody in the game knows it. Gyano Vanderdonck has gone out on loan to a club that wants him in the side rather than around it, and he will come back either a better player or an answered question.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Blau-Weiß Linz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAA Gent they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ali Donny Sylla has left for OH Leuven in a $2.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Djaoui Cissé 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mario Reyes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Eupen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
KAA Gent asked and Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KAA Gent heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$49.7M was the most the club would pay and Cardiff City 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAA Gent people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $438.2K of what KAA Gent paid for Keano Vanrafelghem is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Lokeren-Temse paid $1.7M and KAA Gent took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Adem Zorgane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Hugo Gambor again, and this time the name on the line is Eupen. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djaoui Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer went to Cardiff City 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The chase for Usman Simbakoli ended with $2.6M changing hands and RWDM out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Waasland-Beveren wanted more than $2.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lierse have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djaoui Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olympic Charleroi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
42 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The phone has started ringing about Yira Sor again, and this time the name on the line is Lokeren-Temse. KAA Gent are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KAA Gent will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Pape Diong is in the works
Boardroom86% of the income goes out in wages at KAA Gent
KAA Gent have gone to Club Brugge 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 clubs have shaken hands with Westerlo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to OH Leuven 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Patro Eisden have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KAA Gent heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $28.0M — a club that wants Jan Virgili enough to be asked twice.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mike Trésor wants continental football; whether KAA Gent can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mike Trésor 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Buggea 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.
32 games, 8 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at KAA Gent now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and KAA Gent are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moctar Diop trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAA Gent. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at KAA Gent that is a harder question to answer.
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.
“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 KAA Gent know it.
11 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Francs Borains. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Senne Van Der Perre and KAA Gent agree another 5 years.
18 appearances at TSC and the goals have stopped going in. KAA Gent lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Davy Roef 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.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 appearances at Sparta Rotterdam and the goals have stopped going in. KAA Gent lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAA Gent, another week without a signature from Lennard Hens.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Adnan Kompany clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Adnan Kompany leaves with $97.3K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Adnan Januzaj has taken that personally, in the best sense, and KAA Gent are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KAA Gent would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAA Gent may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Paskotši 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.
“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; KAA Gent are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
11 shut-outs in 31 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Kjell Peersman has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAA Gent have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 shut-outs in 32 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Sławomir Abramowicz has been having a lot of them.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Davy Roef'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.
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 Adem Zorgane 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 KAA Gent, and both men came out saying it was fine.
8 goals in 32 games at Patro Eisden — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KAA Gent updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Ibrahima Cissé’s exile
Mike Trésor 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.
10 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Sparta Rotterdam. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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 Mike Trésor is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAA Gent know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Patro Eisden suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to KAA Gent, and the summer will force it.
Adnan Januzaj has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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.
“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.
Mike Trésor 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KAA Gent can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
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.
11 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Francs Borains. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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 KAA Gent, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Dante Vanzeir 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.
In brief
Loan watchAleksander Bobek’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Racing Genk go through and KAA Gent go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Davy Roef 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.
“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 KAA Gent know it.
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Davy Roef'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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Davy Roef knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
2‑3 against Eintracht Frankfurt. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑2 to RAAL La Louviere, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Paskotši is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Adem Zorgane, marked 7.99, 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAA Gent told Daisuke Yokota something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A brace, and Moctar Diop takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moctar Diop provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Moctar Diop. 2‑0 against Dender, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
27 appearances at Francs Borains and the goals have stopped going in. KAA Gent lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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 KAA Gent, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dante Vanzeir will call it something else in private.
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 Adnan Januzaj is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Loan watchAleksander Bobek’s loan is measured in nothing happening
0‑6. Eintracht Frankfurt 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.
Mike Trésor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Feb 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAA Gent and Eintracht Frankfurt in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 6 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michy Fellaini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
KAA Gent close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 10 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.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mamadou Diallo has come out of that comparison in the side, and KAA Gent have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Mike Trésor is on it.
9 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Kjell Peersman has been having a lot of them.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Enyimba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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 Adnan Januzaj is on it.
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
The dugoutMoctar Diop asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAA Gent will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The offer from Vojvodina for Theo Sander 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.
Davy Roef 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 Maksim Paskotši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 combined actions and 7.20. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAA Gent will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
KAA Gent 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Theo Sander is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Maksim Paskotši 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.
Add another name to the list: Lokeren-Temse have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Landry Sergeant. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KAA Gent can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Divock Origi
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAA Gent have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.6M — a club that wants Mujaid Sadick enough to be asked twice.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAA Gent can pretend not to have heard.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Sint-Truiden kept coming because nothing stopped them, and KAA Gent will be asked about the last half hour all week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAA Gent will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chicago Fire have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$3.6M on the table at IF Elfsborg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
$1.8M on the table at Racing Genk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
In brief
Player ratingsAdem Zorgane goes up and wins it — 7.89
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAA Gent will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 KAA Gent know it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Davy Roef 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 Dec 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksim Paskotši 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.
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.
Minute 91, against Union SG, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KAA Gent has been clear about where László Bénes stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAA Gent is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Moctar Diop 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.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Nobody at KAA Gent will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hugo Gambor has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.