Wesley Hoedt (28) has his heart on his sleeve and also spoke freely with Peter Vandenbempt today.
“That there are no more excuses? That’s right. We can’t have them anymore,” he said clearly on the eve of the European match against Paide in Estonia.
“They were there last year and our group is still young with some uncertainties here and there, but in the end the results have to be there. For sure.”
Anderlecht has again seen many people leave and has also attracted new names. Does this core continue?
“That’s hard to say,” Hoedt ponders his words. “We have Fabio Silva and Sebastiano Esposito, among others, but they are a lot younger and they are different profiles.”
“I like to keep my personal opinion to myself”, Hoedt bit his lip slightly, “but we have to make do with this group.”
“There is enough quality anyway, but it is time that matches such as Saturday’s against Cercle Brugge are a thing of the past. That is simply not possible.”
On Saturday Anderlecht played an absolute non-match. “I think it’s more a lack of intrinsic motivation,” says Wesley Hoedt.
“That’s hard to say, but it is. We talked about it this week, about your own fighting spirit and your own pride that you have to bring every day. This group still has to grow.”
“Anderlecht must do well and finish as high as possible. If you do well, your own career will automatically rise. But I miss that feeling every now and then.”
“We have to change that together as a group and whichever coach you put down – Felice Mazzu is very good at speeding up that process – it has to be done immediately.”
Should Anderlecht then get the mustard from Union? “Yes, they have no more football quality than we do, but I saw someone like Teuma yesterday: he eats the grass and runs for his life.”
“That group feeling, that honor of the team, we have to do that much more instead of: I’m doing well. The team has to come first. We have to bring Anderlecht back to where it belongs, not yourself.”
