The phone has started ringing about Łukasz Łakomy again, and this time the name on the line is Lierse. OH Leuven are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OH Leuven have done the hard part with Anderlecht, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
OH Leuven asked and Volendam 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 Vincent Marchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kristen Ngandimoun and OH Leuven agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
OH Leuven have made the call to Racing Genk. 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 Lierse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OH Leuven is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Club Brugge, the club has $15.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RWDM have kept their man, and OH Leuven 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 OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
OH Leuven spend $6.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $6.3M for Botond Balogh, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
In brief
SquadÓscar Gil falls out with a teammate over standards
OH Leuven and Club Brugge have settled on $18.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The phone has started ringing about Casper Terho again, and this time the name on the line is Lierse. OH Leuven are listening politely and promising nothing.
Henok Teklab was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Óscar Gil 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Marchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at OH Leuven that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutManuel Osifo asks for a word with the manager
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yoann Cathline wants continental football; whether OH Leuven can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gregg Op de Beeck is 20, 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Anton Gaaei is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henok Teklab signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Casper Terho has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at OH Leuven would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Óscar Gil and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout8 May 2028
Joël Drommel 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at OH Leuven would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Henok Teklab and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilguens Paugain 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 dugout1 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Óscar Gil'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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OH Leuven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 OH Leuven would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether OH Leuven can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Henok Teklab and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Óscar Gil 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 OH Leuven 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Casper Terho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henok Teklab signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Yoann Cathline has written the date down.
Vincent Marchetti has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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; OH Leuven 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 OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Marchetti 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 at OH Leuven 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastián Caballero and OH Leuven agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilguens Paugain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Joël Drommel 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OH Leuven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
“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 OH Leuven hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Birger Verstraete 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi 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 OH Leuven, 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.” OH Leuven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yoann Cathline trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henok Teklab signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Vincent Marchetti has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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 Léandro Rousseau has written the date down.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OH Leuven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yoann Cathline wants continental football; whether OH Leuven can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. OH Leuven would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OH Leuven lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Óscar Gil falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Joël Drommel 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OH Leuven lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Henok Teklab 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.” Siebe Schrijvers and OH Leuven agree another 3 years.
“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 dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Óscar Gil'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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Kevin Rodríguez will call it something else in private.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilguens Paugain 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 OH Leuven, and 9 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Théo Gécé has just signed for OH Leuven, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
Wilguens Paugain 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Thomas Doku to a room that had heard them before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Siebe Schrijvers will call it something else in private.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 3, 44 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 OH Leuven know it.
Henok Teklab 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between OH Leuven and Union SG, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
OH Leuven close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
OH Leuven asked and Juventude 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 Wilguens Paugain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Joël Drommel'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.
Birger Verstraete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Club Brugge were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. 1‑0 against Club Brugge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Angers SCO keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Henok Teklab was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Genoa 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 watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vanspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Standard Liege next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The offer from Standard Liege for Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at OH Leuven heard it as anything else.
Anton Gaaei 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.
Charleroi left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven 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.
Racing Genk next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Henok Teklab was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. 1‑0 against KAA Gent, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.58, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ETO Győr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 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.” Thomas Doku kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether OH Leuven can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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 Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi is on it.
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Marked 6.77 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Henok Teklab 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 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.
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Manuel Osifo 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stephano Carrillo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
30 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Birger Verstraete 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 Óscar Gil 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: Wouter George. 1‑0 against KV Mechelen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Half the programme played, position 1, 30 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Anderlecht scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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 Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Doku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
At 19 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 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 Thibaud Verlinden signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aaron Murenzi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OH Leuven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at OH Leuven has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutManuel Osifo knocks on the manager's door
0‑5 against Inter. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. 1‑0 against Antwerp, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thomas Doku on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Arthur Lallias obliged against Beerschot. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is OH Leuven.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Sint-Truiden had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and OH Leuven did not stop to explain themselves.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.54 for the rest of it.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Óscar Gil 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OH Leuven, and 5 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
0‑4. Inter play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.64, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. 2‑0 against Union SG, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Henok Teklab and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thomas Doku on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“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; OH Leuven are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Birger Verstraete 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 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 OH Leuven will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Waasland-Beveren in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
1‑3 against FC Copenhagen. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“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.
Henok Teklab 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.
Marked 6.93 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.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ETO Győr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 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.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Birger Verstraete scored, was marked 7.53, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OH Leuven 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.
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
OH Leuven asked and Seraing said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OH Leuven told Joël Drommel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout13 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Thomas Doku to a room that had heard them before.
“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 OH Leuven 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Standard Liege in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. OH Leuven will try again when the window opens; Gil Vicente may not be selling by then.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
OH Leuven close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Birger Verstraete 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Foolad 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OH Leuven, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Óscar Gil has come out of that comparison in the side, and OH Leuven have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have shaken hands with Gil Vicente; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Sint-Truiden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
$9.7M on the table at Gil Vicente. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
OH Leuven 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.
14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OH Leuven, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Thomas Doku, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Anton Gaaei 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 Óscar Gil 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 OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Thomas Doku was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the OH Leuven dressing room was either.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every 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 Takahiro Akimoto is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven 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 OH Leuven know it.
Anton Gaaei was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Óscar Gil 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. Racing Genk have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OH Leuven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
OH Leuven asked and Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ETO Győr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Noë Dussenne has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Óscar Gil 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. Union SG have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Youri Openda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Toby Boyata 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Toby De Bruyne has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kevin Carrasco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ewoud Pletinckx'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.
Birger Verstraete 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Óscar Gil 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. Anderlecht have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OH Leuven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OH Leuven have done the hard part with KV Kortrijk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Henok Teklab was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
OH Leuven have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OH Leuven know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Thierno Gaye is a OH Leuven player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Casper Terho commits to OH Leuven for another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Twente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
OH Leuven have gone to Seraing 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aaron Murenzi is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
OH Leuven 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Cheron 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 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 Noë Dussenne has written the date down.
Birger Verstraete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and OH Leuven 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 OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 19, and nobody at OH Leuven signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Twente 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Łukasz Łakomy 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.
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 Takahiro Akimoto is on it.
The chase for Léandro Rousseau ended with $1.7M changing hands and Patro Eisden out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OH Leuven have done the hard part with Racing Genk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Léandro Rousseau is living that version at OH Leuven, and it tends to show in the first month.
Henok Teklab was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Abdoul Karim Traoré again, and this time the name on the line is NAC Breda. OH Leuven are listening politely and promising nothing.
Léandro Rousseau was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven 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.
Patro Eisden have accepted the money. What OH Leuven do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OH Leuven have done the hard part with Westerlo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Arthur Lallias again, and this time the name on the line is Samsunspor. OH Leuven are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 OH Leuven know it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Alomía is 20, 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
34 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at OH Leuven now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and OH Leuven 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.
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 Tobe Leysen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Óscar Gil’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. OH Leuven will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Henok Teklab 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Birger Verstraete 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 May 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lierse runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 William Balikwisha is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OH Leuven 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 Tobe Leysen has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roggerio Nyakossi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 7 on 45 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
Muhammed Şengezer 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 May 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi 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 at OH Leuven 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OH Leuven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AGF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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 will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Yuhei Sato is 37, with 3 appearances behind him, and OH Leuven will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OH Leuven lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Birger Verstraete 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.
“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; OH Leuven are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Position 7, 45 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OH Leuven lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Wouter George is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henok Teklab signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
11 goals in 27 games at Sparta Rotterdam — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at OH Leuven updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutTobe Leysen knocks on the manager’s door
Birger Verstraete 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Łukasz Łakomy'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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Takahiro Akimoto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Birger Verstraete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 Henok Teklab signs something — a contract at OH Leuven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 OH Leuven would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Birger Verstraete and OH Leuven agree another 2 years.
Muhammed Şengezer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OH Leuven, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Anderlecht spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
7.79, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. OH Leuven will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Noë Dussenne.
Óscar Gil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. OH Leuven will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Iliano Remans has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Sint-Truiden left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and OH Leuven 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.
The dugout15 Feb 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 Thomas Doku to a room that had heard them 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 OH Leuven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. OH Leuven scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi reports back to OH Leuven with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Óscar Gil 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.
Everybody at OH Leuven saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Add another name to the list: Anderlecht have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. The answer from OH Leuven has not changed — yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
OH Leuven close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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 OH Leuven know 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 OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and CSKA Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OH Leuven have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Arthur Lallias has come up in conversations OH Leuven were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Henok Teklab 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.
OH Leuven asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Thomas Doku left the room before anybody could ask which.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Noë Dussenne.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gamba Osaka keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi and OH Leuven agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Birger Verstraete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.
OH Leuven asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8.26. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OH Leuven have done the hard part with Rizespor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven 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 Óscar Gil 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 OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off 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; OH Leuven are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. OH Leuven had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The deal with Patro Eisden is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The name of Arthur Lallias has come up in conversations OH Leuven were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Birger Verstraete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 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.
OH Leuven asked and Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 19 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.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Óscar Gil 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.
8.12. 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Thomas Doku could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Arthur Lallias
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Ali Donny Sylla was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Thomas Doku, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Henok Teklab 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Óscar Gil 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 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 OH Leuven know it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Óscar Gil 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 26 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Per Kloosterboer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Doku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and OH Leuven 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 Birger Verstraete’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OH Leuven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OH Leuven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 OH Leuven 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdoul Karim Traoré and OH Leuven agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say William Balikwisha is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Birger Verstraete’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OH Leuven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OH Leuven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Óscar Gil 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.68, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Thomas Doku left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Anderlecht.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OH Leuven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
8.03. 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Ali Donny Sylla 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OH Leuven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ali Donny Sylla is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 36, 4 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OH Leuven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Óscar Gil 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 watch every OH Leuven game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RAAL La Louviere runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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 Henok Teklab’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OH Leuven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Birger Verstraete 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 Óscar Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Zulte Waregem scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OH Leuven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 OH Leuven know 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 OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Per Kloosterboer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutTobe Leysen asks for a word with the manager
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Takuya Ogiwara 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ali Donny Sylla is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. OH Leuven will try again when the window opens; Waasland-Beveren may not be selling by then.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Henok Teklab was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Thomas Doku could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutTobe Leysen knocks on the manager's door
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a OH Leuven man
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Per Kloosterboer has just signed for OH Leuven, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at OH Leuven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Gil 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.” Per Kloosterboer and OH Leuven agree another 4 years.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thomas Doku on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutArthur Lallias dropped after a run of poor form
The bid was some way short and OH Leuven did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at OH Leuven 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. OH Leuven will try again when the window opens; Zulte Waregem may not be selling by then.
OH Leuven asked and Lommel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Óscar Gil has come out of that comparison in the side, and OH Leuven have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at OH Leuven than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Nobody at OH Leuven 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.
120 minutes played. William Balikwisha found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Lommel went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. William Balikwisha provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Birger Verstraete provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OH Leuven can pretend not to have heard.
OH Leuven and Waasland-Beveren have settled on $510.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Iliano Remans, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Waasland-Beveren 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 offer from USL Dunkerque for Maxence Prévot 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 from FC Nantes for Tobe Leysen 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.
OH Leuven have gone to Waasland-Beveren 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.
He is going to Club Brugge, the club has $4.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Add another name to the list: Kisvárda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi. The answer from OH Leuven has not changed — yet.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Orlando Pirates 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.
Kyan Vaesen has gone, the accounts have $3.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Waasland-Beveren have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beerschot paid $3.0M and OH Leuven took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Óscar Gil 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 name of Thibault Vlietinck has come up in conversations OH Leuven were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Doku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OH Leuven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Kyan Vaesen again, and this time the name on the line is Union SG. OH Leuven are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“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 OH Leuven, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OH Leuven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and OH Leuven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 1‑0 win over RAAL La Louviere, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.