Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dennis Geiger and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Boris Lambert 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.
A point taken on 89 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Ilić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Dennis Geiger, marked 7.86, 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 KV Kortrijk 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 KV Kortrijk, and 4 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and KAA Gent were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 against Standard Liege, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Jason Denayer and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boris Lambert 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.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
Racing Genk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Boris Lambert 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.
Something was said to Matt Turner and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
SquadKV Kortrijk are still strangers to each other
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hady Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gilles Dewaele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Racing Genk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 KV Kortrijk have no good 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 KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Boris Lambert 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Matt Turner'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. Matt Turner knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Jason Denayer and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Boris Lambert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simon Tielemans was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the KV Kortrijk dressing room was either.
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.
Dennis Geiger 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KV Kortrijk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
15 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 enquiry everybody at KV Kortrijk was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Nayel Mehssatou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to KV Kortrijk.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Boris Lambert 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.
Mohammed El Âdfaoui is 19, and KV Kortrijk have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Issouf Macalou has just signed for KV Kortrijk, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
KV Kortrijk close the window on a squad of their own making
40 in and 30 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.
63 per cent sure, said the file that landed on the director's desk. Universitatea Cluj let him go, KV Kortrijk did not hesitate, and the scouting department has earned the right to a smug fortnight.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Issouf Macalou from Universitatea Cluj for $6.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 2 on the scoresheet, 8.06 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Kortrijk have done the hard part with Universitatea Cluj, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Dender for Matthew Anderson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Wisdom Mike did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KV Kortrijk and Patro Eisden in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Gilles Dewaele and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 14-year-old it feels ownership of. Jason Chadli 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Axl De Corte ended with $1.3M changing hands and Club Brugge out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Boris Lambert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gilles Dewaele 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. Sint-Truiden have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Derik Lacerda takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Derik Lacerda provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Boris Lambert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk 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. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Shandre Campbell 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 words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑3 to Antwerp, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Waasland-Beveren paid $260.0K and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
KV Kortrijk asked and FC Tokyo 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A brace, and Derik Lacerda takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Derik Lacerda provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jellert Van Landschoot and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boris Lambert 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. KV Kortrijk have paid $4.1M for Adnane Abid, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
KV Kortrijk 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $840.0K — a club that wants Wisdom Mike enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sint-Truiden keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$780.0K was the most the club would pay and Charleroi 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at KV Kortrijk
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Adnane Abid was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $4.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadWords at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
KV Kortrijk and Standard Liege have settled on $4.1M. 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.
$780.0K on the table at Charleroi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
KV Kortrijk offered $320.0K; Lommel said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
KV Kortrijk have gone to Sint-Truiden 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.
Lokeren-Temse paid $450.0K and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eden Fellaini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thorgan Vanaken has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adnan Fellaini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokeren-Temse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Kortrijk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
KV Kortrijk and Anderlecht have settled on $520.0K. 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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Lommel 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 chase for Hady Camara ended with $840.0K changing hands and Seraing out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
RWDM paid $1.1M and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer went to Lommel 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boris Lambert 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 shaken hands with Olympic Charleroi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Racing Genk 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 name of Abdoul Diop has come up in conversations KV Kortrijk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
30 appearances and 4 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen 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; KV Kortrijk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
KV Kortrijk have gone to Racing Genk 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 fee is $790.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Patro Eisden drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Goduine Koyalipou 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. KV Kortrijk have paid $4.2M for Jarno Vervaque, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer went to Patro Eisden 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk 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. Francs Borains have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jarno Vervaque from Lokeren-Temse for $4.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Leo Kokubo
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk 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 KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
KV Kortrijk have gone to Sint-Truiden 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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Krasnodar 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 name of Liam De Smet has come up in conversations KV Kortrijk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
KV Kortrijk asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Simon Carrasco 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kevin Tielemans is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Charles Januzaj has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nayel Mehssatou and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shandre Campbell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Liam De Smet has his answer from KV Kortrijk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Kortrijk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 KV Kortrijk have no good answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KV Kortrijk, another week without a signature from Ilan Hurtevent.
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 Leo Kokubo has written the date down.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. KV Kortrijk had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ken Masui 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 on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Kortrijk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 goals in 30 games at KV Kortrijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Kortrijk updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Matthew Anderson plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Jellert Van Landschoot and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. KV Kortrijk will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Goduine Koyalipou 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Gilles Ruyssen has written the date down.
Steve N'Goura 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 Ken Masui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KV Kortrijk, another week without a signature from James Ndjeungoue.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Kortrijk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Ndjeungoue trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
63 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nacer Vertonghen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lois Tielemans is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thorgan Chadli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jason Alderweireld is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ken Masui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Leo Kokubo has written the date down.
In brief
SquadBrecht Dejaegere is training like a man with a point to make
Gilles Dewaele 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.
0‑1 to Lommel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ken Masui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Chances created: 8. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ken Masui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Derik Lacerda is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Lommel next, and one man in the KV Kortrijk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sixtus Ogbuehi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jellert Van Landschoot 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 Steve N'Goura 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 Marko Ilić signs something — a contract at KV Kortrijk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 29 games at KV Kortrijk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Kortrijk 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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 matches without defeat, and then Eupen. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ken Masui 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 goal that put Eupen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when KV Kortrijk equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
7 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. KV Kortrijk will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sami Bouhoudane 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 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: Derik Lacerda. 2‑0 against Jong Gent, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Looking aheadTop-of-the-table clash for KV Kortrijk
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Derik Lacerda at his very best
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Goduine Koyalipou provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
“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; KV Kortrijk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. RFC Liege tried to reorganise, KV Kortrijk did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Goduine Koyalipou decided nobody was going anywhere. RWDM had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Kortrijk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sami Bouhoudane 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at KV Kortrijk pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I watch every KV Kortrijk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kashiwa Reysol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.” Simon Tielemans, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Kortrijk told Sixtus Ogbuehi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Olympic Charleroi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and KV Kortrijk are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I 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.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Adinany is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
0‑3 against Waasland-Beveren, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Waasland-Beveren; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The clock did what RWDM would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. KV Kortrijk will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KV Kortrijk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
RWDM have accepted the money. What KV Kortrijk do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at KV Kortrijk until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Westerlo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matthew Anderson and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The chase for Nathan Bitumazala ended with $490.0K changing hands and Eupen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
KV Kortrijk 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lenn De Smet has gone, the accounts have $2.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The chase for Leo Kokubo ended with $2.2M changing hands and Sint-Truiden out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Boris Lambert delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Boris Lambert scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Standard Liege paid $2.0M and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Union SG paid $1.6M and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Angers SCO keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
KV Kortrijk and Sint-Truiden have settled on $2.2M. 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.
KAA Gent paid $1.9M and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Everything agreed with Cercle Brugge, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
KV Kortrijk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Francs Borains, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brecht Dejaegere. 3‑1 against RSCA Futures, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dender have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Matthew Anderson 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.
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Simon Tielemans could afford to be generous.
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.
Francs Borains made KV Kortrijk work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simon Tielemans after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lokeren-Temse? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Rudy Kohon 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.07. 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonathan Segura commits to KV Kortrijk for another 1 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 2‑3 Simon Tielemans left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdoul Diop is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Kortrijk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gilles Ruyssen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and KV Kortrijk needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at KV Kortrijk and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Eupen; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Gilles Dewaele 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Simon Tielemans to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
Gilles Dewaele 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Kortrijk told Manuel Osifo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Kortrijk has been clear about where Liam De Smet stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Eupen next, and one man in the KV Kortrijk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sixtus Ogbuehi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Jonathan Afolabi is on it.
5 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.
Jellert Van Landschoot 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.
Marked 9.49 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.43. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Goduine Koyalipou scored in the 87th minute, RFC Liege had already begun thinking about the journey home, and KV Kortrijk took the lot.
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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gilles Dewaele has come out of that comparison in the side, and KV Kortrijk have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simon Tielemans on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Three points for KV Kortrijk, 1‑0 the final word against RWDM in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simon Tielemans on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Something was said to Lenn De Smet and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at KV Kortrijk is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nayel Mehssatou provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.20. 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Brecht Dejaegere'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.
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.
9 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. KV Kortrijk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Jonathan Afolabi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Kortrijk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brecht Dejaegere. 1‑0 against Olympic Charleroi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk 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.” Simon Tielemans on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
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.
Gilles Dewaele 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simon Tielemans after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KV Kortrijk told Sixtus Ogbuehi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk 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. Kashima Antlers have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simon Tielemans after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gilles Ruyssen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nayel Mehssatou and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simon Tielemans was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the KV Kortrijk dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Club NXT? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Lierse next, and one man in the KV Kortrijk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 KV Kortrijk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
KV Kortrijk close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 11 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.
KV Kortrijk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilles Ruyssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and KV Kortrijk 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Brecht Dejaegere is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
$9.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Seraing will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. KV Kortrijk were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Antwerp paid $7.1M and KV Kortrijk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
He is going to Toulouse FC, the club has $9.1M 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 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. KV Kortrijk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
KV Kortrijk asked and DAC Dunajska Streda 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KV Kortrijk can pretend not to have heard.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Boris Lambert. 1‑0 against Patro Eisden, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gilles Ruyssen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thierry Ambrose provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Boris Lambert, marked 7.64, 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.
KV Kortrijk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Utrecht, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KV Kortrijk and RSCA Futures, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thierry Ambrose. 4‑2 against RSCA Futures, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
KV Kortrijk asked and Stade de Reims said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Lierse have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tristen Alliet. The answer from KV Kortrijk has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadGilles Ruyssen falls out with a teammate over standards
KV Kortrijk asked and FC Lorient 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 offer went to Standard Liege 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade de Reims is saying, and nobody at KV Kortrijk is enjoying the guessing.
Manuel Osifo 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and KV Kortrijk are still learning each other
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thierry Ambrose and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ken Masui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
A loan enquiry to Stade de Reims: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.