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BRUSSELS : Union Saint Gilloise are within touching distance of a first Belgian league title in 90 years with club officials attributing their remarkable turnaround to a shrewd recruitment process backed by strong analytics.
A home win over Antwerp on Saturday, coupled with a defeat for their closest challengers Club Brugge at Anderlecht the following day, would get Union's noses across the line.
Should that scenario fail to play out, they will have another chance on May 25, the final matchday of the championship round.
Formed in 1897, Union won 11 league titles between 1904 and their last in 1935 but went into serious decline in the early 1960s after being relegated, ending up in the fourth tier of Belgian football some two decades later.
But a revival sparked by investment from Tony Bloom, the owner of English Premier League sude Brighton & Hove Albion, saw Union move up to the second division and then win promotion to the top flight in 2021 after a 48-year absence.
They finished runners-up in their first season back and then came within minutes of the title before having it snatched away in a dramatic finish to the 2022-23 campaign.
They were second again last year, a point behind Club Brugge, but now have their destiny in their own hands.
"We have done well in these play-offs so far, but we are staying calm. The atmosphere is the same as at the start of the play-offs," Union coach Sebastien Pocognoli said.
The 37-year-old former West Bromwich Albion and Brighton defender has been at the helm since the start of the season and credited with keeping Union competitive despite the club selling players and seeing coaches leave every year.
While such turnover rarely fosters continuity, Union have stayed competitive thanks to their data-driven signings.
"We want undervalued, underrated hungry players," said Irishman Chris O'Loughlin, the club's sporting director.
"We don’t have the budgets to go and spend some of the money that’s being spent by some of our colleagues in Belgium.
"By looking for these undervalued, underrated, hungry players we also have the scope to look far and wide, because we have some fantastic data.
"The analytics is a big, strong part of our recruitment process,” he added.
Among their early purchases is tough-tackling English defender Christian Burgess, who joined from Portsmouth, and Kevin Mac Allister, whose younger brother Alexis won the Premier League with Liverpool this season.
This week the players have been cloistered away to avoid outside pressure, with the club’s chief executive officer Philippe Bormans telling Belgian television on Thursday that they have learned from their past disappointments.
"We have all experienced it - including the disappointment - and have taken steps as a club. We know exactly where we stand and what can still happen," he added.
"That experience is important not to look ahead too much and to focus on the next match."
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
