63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LB Chateauroux lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Loïck Piquionne reports back to LB Chateauroux with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. LB Chateauroux have done the hard part with AJ Auxerre, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Yanis Chahid 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 Maxime Blé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at LB Chateauroux can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Moustapha Fall has his answer from LB Chateauroux; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Oumar Sidibé’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and LB Chateauroux needing him to play as if none of it matters.
$120.0K settles it between the clubs for Giani Carbone
Montpellier HSC have accepted the money. What LB Chateauroux do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Yanis Chahid 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 Maxime Blé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. LB Chateauroux will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Gregory Kelo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Lavallée signs something — a contract at LB Chateauroux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Moustapha Fall is on it.
Supporters turn on the $380.0K sale of Gwenn Foulon
He is going to SC Bastia, the club has $380.0K 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.
The offer went to FC Lorient 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Georges Tjomb has agreed terms with USL Dunkerque for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Yanis Chahid 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Corentin Jean, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Teves 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sochaux will make the call about Aymeric Ahmed this week. LB Chateauroux have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
The dugoutOumar Sidibé knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Maasland 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 Willsem Boussaid signs something — a contract at LB Chateauroux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Moustapha Fall is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akim Djaha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean-Baptiste Petit after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bourg-Peronnas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Moustapha Fall is on it.
LB Chateauroux ran out of time with FC Lorient. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Teves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at LB Chateauroux has worked with Jad Koembo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Issam Bouaoune is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. LB Chateauroux will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Moustapha Fall
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yanis Chahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout20 Dec 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.” Jean-Baptiste Petit chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gaoussou Traoré’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and LB Chateauroux needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Yanis Chahid 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.
0‑1 to Quevilly-Rouen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lassana Diakhaby 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 dugout22 Nov 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 Jean-Baptiste Petit left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at LB Chateauroux, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Lavallée signs something — a contract at LB Chateauroux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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 Moustapha Fall is on it.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Issam Bouaoune 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
Yanis Chahid 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jean-Baptiste Petit after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Lavallée signs something — a contract at LB Chateauroux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMoustapha Fall has become a man the manager trusts
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
$710.0K on the table at SC Bastia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
LB Chateauroux asked and RC Lens said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$120.0K on the table at Montpellier HSC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaoussou Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brahima Magassa 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 mood at LB Chateauroux has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Nantes is saying, and nobody at LB Chateauroux is enjoying the guessing.
LB Chateauroux have gone to USL Dunkerque 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lassana Diakhaby 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. LB Chateauroux have done the hard part with EA Guingamp, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yanis Chahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Lucas Lavallée's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yanis Chahid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Yanis Chahid 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at LB Chateauroux, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willsem Boussaid signs something — a contract at LB Chateauroux or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
“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 LB Chateauroux will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Paris 13 Atletico kept coming because nothing stopped them, and LB Chateauroux will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LB Chateauroux have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yanis Chahid 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bakary Sako and LB Chateauroux agree another 2 years.
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lassana Diakhaby 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Issam Bouaoune 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 Gaoussou Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean-Baptiste Petit after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at LB Chateauroux 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valenciennes in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LB Chateauroux this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaoussou Traoré 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean-Baptiste Petit after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Djibril Diarra 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. LB Chateauroux told Mathys De Carvalho something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Issam Bouaoune is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gaoussou Traoré’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and LB Chateauroux needing him to play as if none of it matters.