KlaaZ

Beat Lommel 5-1 in our latest friendly. Game behind closed doors so no idea about the actual performance but it's a very solid result nonethess. For context, Lommel was promoted through playoffs last year after beating 1A team Dender in the final. They are part of City Group.

Would've been quite the feat, yes.

Different Opoku, as this is not about Leicester but OH Leuven. Davis Opoku - Player profile 26/27 | Transfermarkt

Drove up to watch the game. Very solid all over the board, with us being the better team for roughly 70 minutes until they went up 1-0 against the flow of play. 10 difficult minutes after that, but clawed our way back into the game and scored the more than deserved equalizer. Opoku very impressive again, just like Traoré.

Apart from the left back Bonanza mentioned, very little apart from some vague snips online: Alvaro Garcia (Castellon, 26, striker) Kiany Vroman (Lierse, 22, goalkeeper) Mats Rits (without club, 32, defensive midfielder) That said, management has become very, very good in avoiding leaks until deals are done or as good as done (like with the Japanese left back mentioned above). Which is frustrating as a fan, but a good thing for the club as there is far less chance of a last minute hijack. Either way, I'm not expecting big things until we finalize the outgoing transfers of Nyakossi and/or Leysen, who will be the big money makers this window. Despite already having rounded up about 4M in sales of mostly redundant players (with the exception of Akimoto who was apparently homesick and really wanted to go back to Japan).

Correct, had a big move from Beerschot to Ajax very early in his career but after a solid pre season ran into a series of tough injuries (main one being a stress fracture in his back).

On that note, they also sacked two assistants, the U23 manager and the coach responsible for the transition of youth prospects to the first team, with the latter already having a replacement in ex-player Derrick Tshimanga (excellent pick, in my opinion). They weren't lying when they said they really wanted to clean out the mess.

For what it's worth, the last two years have been mostly about reversing the financial errors made in the past to ensure that we don't go down the same road as Leicester. We've gone from a standard 20M in the red to 6M in the red last year, and that's not including the major outgoing transfers of Banzuzi and Brunes. Biggest problem was the huge wage bill, which was in the top five of the league (and higher than that of reigning champions Union). But turning all that around takes time and as long as the wage bill (and overhead in general) is not substantially reduced, it's very hard to properly rebuild the squad. In that regard, this summer might be a very exciting one considering we have players leaving worth at least 20% of that wage bill, if not more, and will probably realise one or two major outgoing transfers. Either way, the fact that we've been on this big of a costcutting mission without really dropping down the table (finishing 12th three times in a row) is, as far as I'm concerned, a good sign. And I'm very happy to see Mazzu gone, worst football in ten years, if not more.

1-1 draw in the prelast game of the season. Again went ahead in a semi-decent first half, again threw it away in an absolute disastrous second period. Fifteen goals conceded in the playoffs, every single one of them after halftime. No gameplan after the break other than 'protect the lead', no incentive to go forward for a second, and the same useless subs as ever in the past few weeks. Thank god this guy will be gone in a few. Probably the worst we've played in six years time.

3-0 win yesterday against a very disappointing Antwerp side, not surprisingly after the decision to let Mazzu go at the end of the season has been taken. 25 very bad minutes, followed by half an hour of very good with three goals, and then again pretty much nothing until the final whistle. In other news, our ladies team are officially back to back champions after a 0-2 win at Club Bruges. They also had a very, very impressive stint in the women Champions League, not only securing a historical qualification for the league phase but going on to qualify for the knockouts where they obviously lost head to head against Arsenal ladies.

Spot on as far as I'm concerned. As for the manager, the decision to not continue with Mazzu after this season has supposedly already been taken.

Just figured I'd pop in here after reading the rumour for Geraerts, as he's an ex-player of ours and was a top candidate to take over last summer but went to Reims in the end instead. Good track record all in all, didn't have much luck with his choices for his last two clubs as Schalke had a whole lot of other problems going on when he was there and Reims sold 85M worth of players during the summer and winter, making a promotion bid much more difficult. Was actually hoping he'd be on our list as I really appreciate his style of football. Someone who wants to attack with a clear philosophy.

Team Houdini nails it again!

Reverse uno from last week, where we should have won 4-1 but lost 0-1. We now won 0-2 but should have lost 4-1. Important win though as we jump over Zulte Waregem out of the playdowns places with one game to go, at home against Antwerp.

I know, but the notable difference is that we've actually had a change in management who are trying to clean this all up. Partially forced by KP though, we are unwilling to back transfers financially until the books are cleared. Yeah, there's been a lot of criticism for Gil (justified, as he had an atrocious first half of the season) but his last five or six games have been top notch, with this goal as the icing on the cake.