“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. KV Mechelen will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Elfadli wants continental football; whether KV Mechelen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasper Dahlhaus 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.
Standard Liege held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. KV Mechelen answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every KV Mechelen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AJ Auxerre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Robin Mirisola 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 Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Mechelen, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Mechelen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Robin Mirisola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Mechelen heard it as anything else.
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.
KV Mechelen asked and Francs Borains said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jasper Dahlhaus had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Union SG were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
José Marsà 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.91, and 2 involvements.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at KV Mechelen
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasper Dahlhaus 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.
KV Mechelen 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Laurent Carrasco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Simion Michez 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Lokeren-Temse said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jasper Dahlhaus 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.
10 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 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 Hassane Bandé is on it.
The offer from Francs Borains for Sam Rak-Sakyi 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 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 KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The phone has started ringing about Simion Michez again, and this time the name on the line is Canon Yaounde. KV Mechelen are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Mechelen, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gora Diouf had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
KV Mechelen asked and Lokeren-Temse said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Damien Mouchamps will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasper Dahlhaus 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation KV Mechelen are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
KV Mechelen and KV Kortrijk have settled on $1.3M. 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 Mechelen asked and Francs Borains 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 Noah Solheid ended with $1.4M changing hands and Seraing out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Takuto Oshima has just signed for KV Mechelen, and for once the answer mattered.
The chase for Brent Laes ended with $980.0K changing hands and Lierse out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Noah Solheid
Seraing have accepted the money. What KV Mechelen do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
KV Mechelen offered $1.5M; RFC Liege 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.
The name of Gora Diouf has come up in conversations KV Mechelen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
6 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.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
He is 20, and nobody at KV Mechelen signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad19 Jun 2028
José Marsà 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. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
KV Mechelen have made the call to KAA Gent. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Canon Yaounde waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Club Brugge, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.9M — a club that wants Jessi Da Silva enough to be asked twice.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Robin Mirisola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joran Gerbet is living that version at KV Mechelen, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Mechelen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
KV Mechelen 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 offer from Dender for Myron van Brederode 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 offer went to Club Brugge 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
$650.0K settles it between the clubs for Arnaud Dony
Patro Eisden have accepted the money. What KV Mechelen do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KV Mechelen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Add another name to the list: Lommel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bouke Boersma. The answer from KV Mechelen has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Abdelkabir Abqar wants continental football; whether KV Mechelen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Abdelkabir Abqar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bouke Boersma 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.
Squad29 May 2028
7 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen 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 Dikeni Salifou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hassane Bandé is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jasper Dahlhaus has written the date down.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some 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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
11 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
“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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hans Courtois has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Radja Batshuayi 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. Thomas Chadli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dries Chadli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adama Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniel Elfadli'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.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simion Michez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at KV Mechelen heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Elfadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hassane Bandé has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and KV Mechelen will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
José Marsà 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.
“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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
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 Simion Michez is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutKéres Masangu knocks on the manager's door
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Jasper Dahlhaus was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ortwin De Wolf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Mechelen have no good answer.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KV Mechelen will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Steve N'Goura’s exile
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simion Michez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at KV Mechelen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdelkabir Abqar and KV Mechelen agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KV Mechelen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Jasper Dahlhaus 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Indy Boonen
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Indy Boonen has come out of that comparison in the side, and KV Mechelen have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether KV Mechelen can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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 Marius Noubissi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdelkabir Abqar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
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 Jasper Dahlhaus has written the date down.
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
“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 Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Essien Bassey has, at KV Mechelen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Daniel Elfadli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Indy Boonen. 2‑0 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
8.24. 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.
“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 Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Noubissi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A brace, and Indy Boonen takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Indy Boonen provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
A 2‑2 draw with RAAL La Louviere leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Toby Doku was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the KV Mechelen dressing room was either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Klein has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bill Antonio. 3‑2 against Dender, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Bill Antonio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
SquadKV Mechelen are still strangers to each other
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tommy St. Jago's mistake
The deal that would have taken Daniel Klein to Cercle Brugge has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to KV Mechelen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Noubissi 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Patro Eisden 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KV Mechelen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at KV Mechelen 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mike Eerdhuijzen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Maksim Kireev decided nobody was going anywhere. Antwerp had no time left to answer.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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 Mike Eerdhuijzen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luton Town have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksim Kireev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maksim Kireev. 1‑0 against Antwerp, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsBill Antonio beats them one at a time
“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 Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Mechelen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
KV Mechelen asked and OH Leuven said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Simion Michez 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Abdelkabir Abqar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Eerdhuijzen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
$13.8M was the most the club would pay and OH Leuven were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Mechelen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Elfadli and KV Mechelen agree another 4 years.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
KV Mechelen 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.
The offer went to OH Leuven this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Mechelen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. KV Mechelen had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simion Michez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at KV Mechelen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Eerdhuijzen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with KV Kortrijk the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that KV Mechelen will enjoy reviewing.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Toby Doku was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the KV Mechelen dressing room was either.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Standard Liege leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Toby Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mervin Gbeme is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Noubissi 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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 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.
10 combined actions and 6.69. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simion Michez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksim Kireev 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.
Mervin Gbeme 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Toby Doku kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
José Marsà 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.
16 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Toby Doku to a room that had heard them before.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Abdelkabir Abqar wants continental football; whether KV Mechelen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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 José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 combined actions and 6.92. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Toby Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zulte Waregem defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Robin Mirisola 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 Mechelen told Massimo Decoene something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 Ortwin De Wolf’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and KV Mechelen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutNacho Miras asks for a word with the manager
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Mechelen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
7 matches without a win, and then this, against RAAL La Louviere. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad8 Nov 2027
José Marsà 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.
Marked 6.83 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 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 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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at KV Mechelen has been clear about where Damien Mouchamps stands, which is more than many ever get.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KV Mechelen has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mike Eerdhuijzen's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hassane Bandé has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Mechelen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mervin Gbeme is 20, and KV Mechelen 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.
“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.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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 watch every KV Mechelen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Groningen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Abdelkabir Abqar 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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 8.13 — 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Sint-Truiden leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Toby Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Abdelkabir Abqar and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Sep 2027
José Marsà 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Toby Doku to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Marsà signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Massimo Decoene trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marius Noubissi provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simion Michez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KV Mechelen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
6 goals in one match, Marius Noubissi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KV Mechelen and Waasland-Beveren.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marius Noubissi. 4‑2 against Waasland-Beveren, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at KV Mechelen 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Ali Loune enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkabir Abqar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Mechelen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Tommy St. Jago 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.
KV Mechelen asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympic Charleroi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.37 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.77, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and KV Kortrijk had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and KV Mechelen did not stop to explain themselves.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
$3.6M 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 Massimo Decoene has come up in conversations KV Mechelen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Marius Noubissi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Robin Mirisola 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Robin Mirisola. 1‑0 against KV Kortrijk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bilal Bafdili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Olympic Charleroi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Simion Michez. The answer from KV Mechelen has not changed — yet.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Toby Doku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Massimo Decoene and KV Mechelen agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
José Marsà 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.
Marked 6.77 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sint-Truiden have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.” Toby Doku after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and KV Mechelen 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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dedryck De Ketelaere 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. Romelu Kompany 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. Christian Doku 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 18336. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
The offer from Seraing for Bilal Bafdili 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
5 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 phone has started ringing about Bilal Bafdili again, and this time the name on the line is Seraing. KV Mechelen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at KV Mechelen is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Myron van Brederode and KV Mechelen agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Hassane Bandé 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KV Mechelen will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Luca Ferrara enough to be asked twice.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KV Mechelen asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Robin Mirisola 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.
KV Mechelen have made the call to Sassuolo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Heracles for Bouke Boersma 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KV Mechelen asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. KV Mechelen have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
KV Mechelen asked and Union SG 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 Bilal Bafdili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Nantes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and KV Mechelen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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 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 Mechelen and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Simion Michez 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
KV Mechelen 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bilal Bafdili 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bouke Boersma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
24 games and 8 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
Bilal Bafdili falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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 Hassane Bandé is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Halil Özdemir is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
SquadBill Antonio is training like a man with a point to make
42Edition
The KV Mechelen Herald
17 May 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad17 May 2027
José Marsà 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen 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 Thérence Koudou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at KV Mechelen will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Myron van Brederode signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
46 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KV Mechelen, another week without a signature from Indy Boonen.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Abdul Nurudeen has written the date down.
“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 Mechelen, 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.
In brief
SquadBill Antonio is put on a programme of his own
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Rak-Sakyi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KV Mechelen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutHalil Özdemir has become a man the manager trusts
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 Mohamed Amine Chakir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
José Marsà 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 KV Mechelen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thérence Koudou is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Amine Chakir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Junior Ngambi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 goals in 27 games at Den Bosch — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Mechelen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Damien Mouchamps is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KV Mechelen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Mechelen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Rak-Sakyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 Bilal Bafdili is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KV Mechelen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Mechelen have no good answer.
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Den Bosch suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to KV Mechelen, and the summer will force it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Daniel Klein a promise
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Amine Chakir. 2‑1 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
6 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Toby Doku on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Mike Eerdhuijzen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Dikeni Salifou 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 is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Dikeni Salifou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Toby Doku on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
José Marsà 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.
15 goals in 24 games at Den Bosch — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Mechelen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Toby Doku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
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 Damien Mouchamps is on it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 7.24, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ortwin De Wolf. 1‑0 against Club Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassane Bandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Helsingborg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Feb 2027
José Marsà 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Nantes have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
5 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Toby Doku was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the KV Mechelen dressing room was either.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Mechelen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Francs Borains have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Mechelen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Keano Vanrafelghem was one of the reasons people came, and $3.3M does not replace that by itself.
Charleroi paid $1.7M and KV Mechelen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
15 goals in 19 games at Den Bosch — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at KV Mechelen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gora Diouf, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Hassane Bandé 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.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Levante for José Marsà 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.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: KAA Gent have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Keano Vanrafelghem. The answer from KV Mechelen has not changed — yet.
The fee is $370.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eupen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mike Eerdhuijzen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Seraing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KV Mechelen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Charleroi for Benito Raman 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KV Mechelen have done the hard part with Eupen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
KV Mechelen 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 words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Mechelen can pretend not to have heard.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KV Mechelen know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and KV Mechelen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tommy St. Jago scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Mike Eerdhuijzen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
José Marsà has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Benito Raman. 2‑1 against Cercle Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Benito Raman had KV Mechelen level again within 4 minutes, and Cercle Brugge never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Bouke Boersma’s exile
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Dender; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Toby Doku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at KV Mechelen will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Standard Liege tried to reorganise, KV Mechelen did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Toby Doku on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Mechelen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leo Fuhr Hjelde and KV Mechelen agree another 5 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Indy Boonen. 1‑0 against Racing Genk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bill Antonio is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
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 Mechelen 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 Hassane Bandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Mechelen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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
José Marsà 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 KV Mechelen 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Myron van Brederode signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KV Mechelen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and KV Mechelen will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Cercle Brugge go through and KV Mechelen go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Mike Eerdhuijzen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Toby Doku after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Golič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Myron van Brederode 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Toby Doku could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassane Bandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutPapa Ibou Kébé dropped after a run of poor form
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Bouke Boersma’s exile
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KV Mechelen has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dikeni Salifou and KV Mechelen agree another 4 years.
A 1‑1 draw with Club Brugge leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
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.” Toby Doku chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Marsà signs something — a contract at KV Mechelen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
Player ratingsBenito Raman beats them one at a time
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Marsà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mory Konaté has his answer from KV Mechelen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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.
6 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Bilal Bafdili has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at KV Mechelen.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassane Bandé 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Mory Konaté is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at KV Mechelen 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.
KAA Gent next, and one man in the KV Mechelen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
7.64, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Mike Eerdhuijzen 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 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
José Marsà 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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Anderlecht had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
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 Mechelen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at KV Mechelen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Marsà 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.
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.