Sverre Nypan, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lommel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Lommel 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cercle Brugge moved on, Leon Lalić reports back to Lommel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad1 Feb 2027
At 20, Sverre Nypan is already the best thing here
An average of 7.02 in a first team he is several years too young for. Lommel have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Ilyes Ziani 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan 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 offer from Cercle Brugge for Juho Talvitie was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jason van Duiven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lommel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Filip Stevanović has come up in conversations Lommel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro López is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Honved runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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 Lommel 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 Sverre Nypan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lommel asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Charleroi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lommel can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Sverre Nypan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coventry City have kept their man, and Lommel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 21 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.
The offer from AZ for Jason van Duiven was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Lommel will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Robin van Duiven is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal with Seraing 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.
Sverre Nypan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan 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.
Position 5, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Charleroi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilyes Ziani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Lommel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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.
“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 Lommel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jason van Duiven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lommel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Three points for Lommel, 1‑0 the final word against Eupen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Lautaro López 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Position 2, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Ewen Jaouen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Sverre Nypan 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lommel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 0‑1 Lois Januzaj left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ewen Jaouen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Victor Daguin
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
30 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Lommel will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Lautaro López 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lommel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lois Januzaj after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jason van Duiven 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Lommel will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Charleroi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sverre Nypan 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.
Nobody at Lommel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RWDM in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robin van Duiven trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Lommel that is a harder question to answer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lommel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sverre Nypan 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Lautaro López 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.
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Lois Januzaj chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Victor Daguin
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.
26 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.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lommel 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 Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Lommel 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 watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Charleroi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilyes Ziani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Lois Januzaj chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Robin van Duiven
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lierse; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lois Januzaj after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lommel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel 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 Lautaro López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Lommel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Victor Daguin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lommel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jesper Tolinsson has written the date down.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Club NXT spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Juho Talvitie did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ilyes Ziani 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sverre Nypan 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Juho Talvitie 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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Seraing had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Lommel did not stop to explain themselves.
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Jason van Duiven, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lommel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jason van Duiven 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.
Three points for Lommel, 1‑0 the final word against Seraing in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Lautaro López 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.
Ewen Jaouen 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 Lautaro López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I watch every Lommel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Honved runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
6 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.
“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 Lommel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lommel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. OH Leuven moved on, Leon Lalić reports back to Lommel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
At 19 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Lommel close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 8 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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Leon Lalić again, and this time the name on the line is OH Leuven. Lommel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro López 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sverre Nypan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lommel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Match26 Aug 2026
Tom Reyners wins it after the whistle should have gone
115 minutes played. Tom Reyners found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and OH Leuven went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Filip Krastev scored in the 86th minute, Jong Genk had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Lommel took the lot.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Seraing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lommel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Juho Talvitie, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.39
A mark of 8.39 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lommel can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lommel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to AZ; Lommel go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Lommel offered $83.0K; Beerschot said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sverre Nypan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over Francs Borains, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Sverre Nypan, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants D'Margio Wright-Phillips enough to be asked twice.
Everything agreed with Fenerbahce, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Sverre Nypan 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.
$83.0K on the table at Beerschot. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ilyes Ziani 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ilyes Ziani has, at Lommel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Sverre Nypan, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charleroi have kept their man, and Lommel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.1M — a club that wants Aiham Ousou enough to be asked twice.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Sverre Nypan 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.
Words at Lommel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krastev 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.
Matthias Pieklak 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.
“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; Lommel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lommel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jong Gent in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.