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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. KAA Gent will try again when the window opens; Standard Liege may not be selling by then.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Haruto Suzuki has, at KAA Gent, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Adnan Januzaj falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have shaken hands with Standard Liege; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 The request is on a desk at KAA Gent, and it is not being withdrawn.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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Jan 2027
Momodou Sonko wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Momodou Sonko found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and KV Oostende went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Evander 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.
16 goals in 24 games at Groningen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KAA Gent updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Rajković 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 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.
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for KAA Gent. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Add another name to the list: Zulte Waregem have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tibe De Vlieger. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.
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.
Anderlecht paid $250.0K 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Momodou Sonko has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The 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 Westerlo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Adnan Januzaj 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon KAA Gent had all but put away. Anderlecht will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.03, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Dedryck Doku
KV Oostende 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 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He 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.
A brace, and Grejohn Kyei takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Grejohn Kyei provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Evander 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Rajković 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Charleroi had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adnan Januzaj is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Lokeren spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Austria Wien spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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.
Marked 7.47. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adnan Januzaj. 3‑2 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksim Paskotši 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.
3‑4 against Shakhtar. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Evander 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.
7 goals in one match, Dries Mertens on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KAA Gent and Shakhtar.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grejohn Kyei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tom Auvré has just signed for KAA Gent, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Grejohn Kyei's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed El Âdfaoui and KAA Gent agree another 4 years.
8.08. 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.
3‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Adnan Januzaj was at the centre of the description.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grejohn Kyei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Mouscron, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Adnan Januzaj was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Evander 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adrian Van Rumst has, at KAA Gent, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The shirt still fits. Adrian Van Rumst is back at KAA Gent, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The goal that put Club Brugge ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when KAA Gent equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Benoît Costil has his answer from KAA Gent; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
1‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Grejohn Kyei was at the centre of the description.
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.
Olimpija Ljubljana held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. KAA Gent answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at KAA Gent pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kjell Peersman is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Three points for KAA Gent, 1‑0 the final word against KV Mechelen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Grejohn Kyei 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Tiago Araújo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Youri Batshuayi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
KV Oostende will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. KAA Gent were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KAA Gent and KV Oostende, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Rajković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Grejohn Kyei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.79. 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.
0‑0 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.
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.
Evander 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.
A point taken on 88 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.
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 Sep 2026
Words at KAA Gent training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grejohn Kyei 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.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
0‑0 against Shakhtar, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Adnan Januzaj 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 Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at KAA Gent pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hyllarion Goore had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Westerlo have kept their man, and KAA Gent go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathias Delorge 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdelkahar Kadri's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The 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.
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Grejohn Kyei takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Grejohn Kyei provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
KAA Gent asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 2 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.
“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.
Evander 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.
In brief
MatchGrejohn Kyei among the goals in a wild afternoon
SquadGrejohn Kyei falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsAimé Omgba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Successful dribbles: 48. 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $7.1M has been paid because Predrag Rajković is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
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.
KAA Gent asked and Nashville SC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Add another name to the list: Harrogate Town have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hyllarion Goore. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsAbdelkahar Kadri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The fee is $2.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Standard Liege drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from Sint-Truiden for Tibe De Vlieger 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KAA Gent and OH Leuven, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
$40.6M was the most the club would pay and Brighton 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $17.9M has been paid because Evander is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
KAA Gent have gone to Al-Ittihad 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.95 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 offer from KV Kortrijk for Mohammed El Âdfaoui was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
KAA Gent and FC Cincinnati have settled on $17.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
1 for Mathias Delorge, marked 7.77, 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.
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.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. KAA Gent found something the first half had given no notice of, and Waasland-Beveren could not hold what they had.
$14.5M on the table at FC Cincinnati. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
KAA Gent have gone to Twente 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adnan Januzaj is living that version at KAA Gent, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAA Gent this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Willem II have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Max Dean. The answer from KAA Gent has not changed — yet.