Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maxence Maisonneuve has just signed for Seraing, and for once the answer mattered.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Seraing asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Seraing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The bid was some way short and Seraing did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Ndoh Wamfor takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ndoh Wamfor provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Henry Lawrence 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The name of Michiel Haentjens has come up in conversations Seraing were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Minute 95, against KV Kortrijk, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.” Youri Kompany kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
1‑4 against Jong Genk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Up for the corner, and Jérémy Landu delivers — 7.42
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jérémy Landu scored, was marked 7.42, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing 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 Fostave Mabani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jonathan Coenen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Seraing needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu 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.” Relja Biševac and Seraing agree another 4 years.
The dugout6 Dec 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 Youri Kompany left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nick Gillekens is on it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Seraing scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 6, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Filip Stevanović. 2‑0 against Club NXT, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mart Remans, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 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.” Youri Kompany kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Seraing game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sint-Truiden runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Grady Makiobo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Seraing needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Seraing would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Seraing. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Seraing will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutJérémy Landu asks for a word with the manager
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Seraing can tell you which week it ends in.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seraing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Youri Kompany after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Seraing can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Henry Lawrence 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.
Nobody at Seraing will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Seraing will try not to make too much of it.
7.93, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Seraing had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Jérémy Landu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Seraing 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fostave Mabani’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Seraing needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Youri Kompany after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Grady Makiobo has his answer from Seraing; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu. 3‑2 against Eupen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutNick Gillekens has become a man the manager trusts
SquadJérémy Landu falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
The bid was some way short and Seraing did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Seraing close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 19 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.
The deal that would have taken Jérémy Landu to Lommel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Seraing with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Seraing know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seraing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fostave Mabani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Seraing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Seraing asked and Noah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheikhou Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hatayspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Seraing is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Seraing can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thiago Paulo da Silva commits to Seraing for another 4 years.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence 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.
Seraing asked and FC Annecy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The deal with Antwerp 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.
Add another name to the list: Hatayspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kelvin Dongopandji. The answer from Seraing has not changed — yet.
Henry Lawrence 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Seraing have paid $510.0K for Ndoh Wamfor, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Seraing
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Ndoh Wamfor was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $510.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thorgan Vertonghen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thorgan Alderweireld 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fostave Mabani
$1.7M from Waasland-Beveren for Noah Solheid. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$510.0K settles it between the clubs for Ndoh Wamfor
Westerlo have accepted the money. What Seraing do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Noah Solheid was one of the reasons people came, and $1.7M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Francs Borains for Boris Ngoua 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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Seraing asked and FC Annecy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Nick Gillekens is on it.
Matteo Scarpinati has gone, the accounts have $520.0K 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.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Charleroi paid $520.0K and Seraing took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Seraing asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Boris Ngoua has come up in conversations Seraing were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheikhou Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thiago Paulo da Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Seraing know which stage they are at.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Charleroi is saying, and nobody at Seraing is enjoying the guessing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Sint-Truiden have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wassim Bahri. The answer from Seraing has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Seraing asked and LNZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Seraing, another week without a signature from Ilyes Ziani.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
$4.8M settles it between the clubs for Aiham Ousou
Charleroi have accepted the money. What Seraing do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Seraing asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fostave Mabani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cheikhou Ndiaye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Seraing would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutNoa Lukebadio has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes Noah Solheid a promise
The offer from Antwerp for Nick Gillekens 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.
“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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KV Mechelen have kept their man, and Seraing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Club Brugge 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 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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheikhou Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Seraing have made the call to Standard Liege. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Seraing 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Suliman Natif
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Nick Gillekens
$2.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The offer from Union SG for Thiago Paulo da Silva 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.
He is going to Standard Liege, the club has $2.4M 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.
$3.0M on the table at KV Mechelen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Seraing has been clear about where Wassim Bahri stands, which is more than many ever get.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdoulaye Bâ is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leander Doku 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. Romelu Tielemans 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. Hans Castagne has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lois Onana 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.
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheikhou Ndiaye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Seraing would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence 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 Nick Gillekens is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kelvin Dongopandji trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Seraing will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Seraing and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Isaías Delpupo 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 Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Noa Lukebadio is on 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 Seraing will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Noah Solheid has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seraing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Bukusu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cheikhou Ndiaye trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing 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 Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence 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 Nick Gillekens is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Bukusu 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 Noa Lukebadio is on it.
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 Seraing that is a harder question to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Seraing know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Seraing pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Youri Kompany chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Seraing scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Club NXT were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu. 1‑0 against Club NXT, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsMart Remans ran the middle of the pitch — 6.74
Henry Lawrence 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Bukusu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Club NXT next, and one man in the Seraing dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Noah Solheid has written the date down.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Seraing and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 40 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Seraing is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Youri Kompany chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Da Costa 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Thierno Gaye will call it something else in private.
A 1‑1 draw with Patro Eisden leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Youri Kompany chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu had Seraing level again within 2 minutes, and RSCA Futures never got to play with a lead at all.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Seraing can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It needed Hemsley Akpa-Chukwu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against RSCA Futures, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Seraing can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fostave Mabani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Seraing, another week without a signature from Ilyes Ziani.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Noah Solheid 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.
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 Nick Gillekens is on it.
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.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Youri Kompany after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Francs Borains? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noah Solheid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 92, against Lokeren-Temse, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Diego Duarte 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Seraing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Seraing pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing 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 Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lommel left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Feb 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 0‑1 Youri Kompany left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Seraing would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mathieu Muland was one of the reasons people came, and $530.0K does not replace that by itself.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Seraing may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Seraing close the window on a squad of their own making
6 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.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fostave Mabani 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Seraing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Everything was agreed with Standard Liege and then the doctor spoke. Seraing have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Seraing asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathieu Muland has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Radja Carrasco 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. Nacer Tielemans 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. Thorgan De Ketelaere is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navbahor have kept their man, and Seraing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Youri Kompany after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mathieu Muland had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henry Lawrence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Henry Lawrence and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Da Costa 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.
Minute 87, against Olympic Charleroi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
A mark of 7.36, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Bukusu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Youri Kompany chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutNick Gillekens has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seraing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Youri Kompany after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Thierno Gaye
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Bukusu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henry Lawrence 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.
Jan Vertonghen arrives at 39 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Henry Lawrence 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: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Seraing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fostave Mabani 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Patro Eisden had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
9 combined actions and 7.52. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Seraing told Fostave Mabani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seraing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Henry Lawrence 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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hady Camara is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Youri Kompany could afford to be generous.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Seraing will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Something was said to Henry Lawrence and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Youri Kompany after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Seraing will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Seraing told Isaías Delpupo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kevin Bukusu 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Francs Borains in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Seraing know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Seraing will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Cameron Manang, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 161% of everything Seraing earn
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Seraing 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 Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Doku has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Radja Nainggolan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kevin Hazard 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. Hans Meunier 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Seraing training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Seraing 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.
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kevin Bukusu 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilyes Ziani signs something — a contract at Seraing or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Seraing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Noa Lukebadio is on it.
Isaías Delpupo 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Seraing, another week without a signature from Ilyes Ziani.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilyes Ziani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ilyes Ziani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deal that would have taken Mathieu Muland to RFC Liege has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Seraing with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ilyes Ziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
Seraing asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jérémy Landu has his answer from Seraing; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Seraing can pretend not to have heard.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Basaksehir is saying, and nobody at Seraing is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sigma Olomouc have kept their man, and Seraing go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Seraing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Anderlecht; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Onze Createurs for Nils Velleuer 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $350.0K — a club that wants Michiel Haentjens enough to be asked twice.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Noah Solheid 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.
Seraing asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mart Remans has just signed for Seraing, and for once the answer mattered.
1 for Thiago Paulo da Silva, marked 7.80, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Genk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ilyes Ziani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and Seraing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fostave Mabani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Seraing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ilyes Ziani has, at Seraing, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Seraing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Seraing will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Seraing have made the call to Standard Liege. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Noah Solheid 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.
61 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Seraing have made the call to Sint-Truiden. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.