Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Standard Liege they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Standard Liege can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Standard Liege, and 3 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Gustav Mortensen 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lenn De Smet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2‑2 against Hammarby, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Abdelkahar Kadri was at the centre of the description.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.39, and 2 involvements.
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.
David Bates and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothé Nkada 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.
Lucas Pirard 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothé Nkada is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lenn De Smet has his answer from Standard Liege; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Standard Liege heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lenn De Smet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Standard Liege has been clear about where David Bates stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matthieu Epolo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
KAA Gent next, and one man in the Standard Liege dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Standard Liege have no good answer.
0‑3. Real Madrid 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.
8 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Standard Liege is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enzo Crivelli and Standard Liege agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ibrahim Karamoko 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
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.
Gustav Mortensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothé Nkada 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 dugout27 Sep 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 Jorge Esteban left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑1 against Monaco, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege 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 Lenn De Smet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Standard Liege pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Standard Liege people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Lucas Pirard to Lommel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Standard Liege with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
At 18 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.
Standard Liege asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
David Bates 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.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Timothé Nkada 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Standard Liege people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Kaito Yasui to Twente has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Standard Liege with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Standard Liege they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 25 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield Wednesday have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Standard Liege lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 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.
The offer from HNK Rijeka for Kaito Yasui 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Standard Liege know it.
Standard Liege 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Standard Liege will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Marco Ilaimaharitra, marked 7.87, 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.
“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 Standard Liege hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Standard Liege lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Standard Liege asked and Al Ahly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. KV Mechelen had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Timothé Nkada 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Standard Liege they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lenn De Smet 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.
Bernard Nguene 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.
2 games now in a shape the manager was not using a month ago. Changing a formation is easy and keeping one is not, which is why the second of those is the part that tells you something.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jorge Esteban after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Bernard Nguene 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.
“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; Standard Liege are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lenn De Smet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Standard Liege will be judged on one thing only.
7.99, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Standard Liege had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 new faces, and Standard Liege 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.
Yanis Dubois has left for Lokeren-Temse in a $1.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Standard Liege
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antwerp have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nacer De Ketelaere has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed El Hankouri, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothé Nkada 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Adnane Abid 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.
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lenn De Smet is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdelkahar Kadri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Standard Liege is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The phone has started ringing about Daan Dierckx again, and this time the name on the line is Cercle Brugge. Standard Liege are listening politely and promising nothing.
Adnane Abid 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 Timothé Nkada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaito Yasui signs something — a contract at Standard Liege or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adnane Abid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Standard Liege have done the hard part with Arsenal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Waasland-Beveren have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yann Gboua. The answer from Standard Liege has not changed — yet.
11 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.
10 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Standard Liege can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yhannis Onehese is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Crivelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Standard Liege people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Enzo Crivelli 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.
Gustav Mortensen 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.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Dimitri Lavalée has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Standard Liege are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Twente is saying, and nobody at Standard Liege is enjoying the guessing.
Francs Borains wanted more than $630.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
At 18 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Standard Liege 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 Standard Liege 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.
37 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Standard Liege have gone to Francs Borains 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.
Standard Liege offered $220.0K; Lommel said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Enzo Crivelli falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandro Calut and Standard Liege agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Enzo Crivelli 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.
27 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Standard Liege 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 Standard Liege. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Standard Liege had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Adnane Abid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Standard Liege. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Standard Liege, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Enzo Crivelli 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaito Yasui signs something — a contract at Standard Liege 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 Adnane Abid has written the date down.
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Crivelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timothy Nainggolan 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 Carrasco has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Timothy Kompany is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Standard Liege know it.
In brief
The dugoutAdnane Abid knocks on the manager’s door
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Eden Januzaj clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“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 Standard Liege know it.
Jordan Kadiri and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Eden Januzaj leaves with $11.1K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Dimitri Lavalée has taken the hint, and Standard Liege are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
“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 Standard Liege know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Crivelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bernard Nguene 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.
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 Ryan Fosso is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Standard Liege, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Crivelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Adnane Abid 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 easiest signature of my career.” Diego Rosales and Standard Liege agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed El Hankouri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Rosales and Standard Liege agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Standard Liege 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 Standard Liege will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Standard Liege can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Standard Liege have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Enzo Crivelli 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.
Ibe Hautekiet 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 involved Bernard Nguene, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Kaito Yasui is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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 Marco Ilaimaharitra is on it.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Crivelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Standard Liege are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Standard Liege. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Adnane Abid 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.
Everybody at Standard Liege saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
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. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 17 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 Enzo Crivelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Standard Liege 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Standard Liege will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Standard Liege know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Marlon Fossey was one of the reasons people came, and $9.0M does not replace that by itself.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mohammed El Hankouri scored, was marked 7.48, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enzo Crivelli and Standard Liege agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Standard Liege can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Crivelli 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.
Jordan Kadiri 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.
9 combined actions and 6.78. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Standard Liege can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Adnane Abid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 20 and 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: LA Galaxy will make the call about Marlon Fossey this week. Standard Liege have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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 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 Standard Liege know it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Crivelli 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.
Adnane Abid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eden Januzaj after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Josué Homawoo.
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 Tobias Mohr is on it.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 Enzo Crivelli 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Eden Januzaj could afford to be generous.
Something was said to Adnane Abid and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutMatthieu Epolo has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Standard Liege 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Standard Liege will try again when the window opens; Olympic Charleroi may not be selling by then.
Tobias Mohr scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Dender, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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 easiest signature of my career.” Yanis Dubois and Standard Liege agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Standard Liege and Olympic Charleroi have settled on $4.5M. 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.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Standard Liege close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 4 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.
Standard Liege ran out of time with Beerschot. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Siviwe Magidigidi has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Standard Liege asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Seraing waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Standard Liege is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The bid was some way short and Standard Liege did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Crivelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Standard Liege 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.
The offer from RKC Waalwijk for Jordan Kadiri 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.
1 for Mohammed El Hankouri, marked 7.12, 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lenn De Smet has, at Standard Liege, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matthieu Epolo and Standard Liege agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Standard Liege people have started saying his name in the past tense.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.2M has been paid because Jordan Kadiri is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
Standard Liege asked and KV Kortrijk 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.1M — a club that wants Christopher Scott enough to be asked twice.
The phone has started ringing about Jordan Kadiri again, and this time the name on the line is Cambuur. Standard Liege are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Standard Liege spend $2.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.2M for Jordan Kadiri, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Crivelli 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 Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
Standard Liege and Dender have settled on $2.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Standard Liege have gone to Antwerp 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antwerp have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.5M on the table at KV Kortrijk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Enzo Crivelli 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 phone has started ringing about Belmin Dizdarević again, and this time the name on the line is Charleroi. Standard Liege are listening politely and promising nothing.
RAAL La Louviere will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Standard Liege were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.48 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Enzo Crivelli 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 Abdelkahar Kadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.15 — 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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have 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 Standard Liege know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkahar Kadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Amos Mpanzu 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.
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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Eden Januzaj to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Standard Liege 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 Standard Liege, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Club Brugge in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Standard Liege had all but put away. Anderlecht will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Rivas and Standard Liege agree another 1 years.
Anthony Modeste 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 Abdelkahar Kadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Anderlecht on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Position 13, 15 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Standard Liege can pretend not to have heard.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkahar Kadri 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sint-Truiden in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Enzo Crivelli 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.
Beerschot go through and Standard Liege go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
1 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.
André-Pierre Gignac was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelkahar Kadri 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Standard Liege can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matthieu Epolo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The captaincy has been taken off Ibrahim Karamoko. Standard Liege will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eden Januzaj was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Standard Liege dressing room was either.
Nobody at Standard Liege 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.
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.
“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; Standard Liege are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkahar Kadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Cercle Brugge, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eden Januzaj on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdelkahar Kadri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ibe Hautekiet’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Standard Liege needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Standard Liege is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkahar Kadri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eden Januzaj was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Standard Liege dressing room was either.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
In brief
The dugoutAdnane Abid knocks on the manager's door
Anthony Modeste 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gustav Mortensen is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Matthieu Epolo is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaito Yasui signs something — a contract at Standard Liege or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bernard Nguene trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Standard Liege has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Anthony Modeste 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anthony Modeste. 1‑0 against KAA Gent, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Standard Liege is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
13 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Eden Januzaj could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Anthony Modeste had Standard Liege level again within 1 minutes, and Racing Genk never got to play with a lead at all.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Timothé Nkada 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 dugout28 Sep 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 Eden Januzaj left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Standard Liege.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Eden Januzaj kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The offer from Seraing for Gustav Mortensen 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 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eden Januzaj 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 Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Standard Liege 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaito Yasui signs something — a contract at Standard Liege or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
$4.1M was the most the club would pay and Colorado Rapids 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Beerschot have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Standard Liege heard it as anything else.
The name of Gustav Mortensen has come up in conversations Standard Liege were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Standard Liege training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed El Hankouri 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The offer went to Colorado Rapids 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.
“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 Standard Liege, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Heracles for Boli Bolingoli 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 $1.0M — a club that wants Christophe Janssens enough to be asked twice.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Standard Liege spend $9.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $9.8M for Abdelkahar Kadri, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
8.05. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Waasland-Beveren have kept their man, and Standard Liege go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kaito Yasui was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $9.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The offer went to Urawa Reds 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.
The offer went to KV Kortrijk 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dennis Ayensa was one of the reasons people came, and $3.1M does not replace that by itself.
Anthony Modeste 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Standard Liege and Club Brugge, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The offer from De Graafschap for Ibe Hautekiet was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to RAAL La Louviere 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.
$830.0K on the table at Racing Genk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $897.0K — a club that wants Lucca Brughmans enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Standard Liege this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Los Angeles Football Club for Marlon Fossey 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 phone has started ringing about Ibe Hautekiet again, and this time the name on the line is De Graafschap. Standard Liege are listening politely and promising nothing.
André-Pierre Gignac 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.