Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dahiss Mendy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Le Havre AC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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; Le Havre AC 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Junior Mwanga 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Stéphane Boyer to a room that had heard them before.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
A 2‑1 win over Nimes, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A brace, and Mika Godts takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mika Godts provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Le Havre AC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Andy Pelmard 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 Junior Mwanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Guy Noël Zohouri is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Add another name to the list: Paris FC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joan Tincres. The answer from Le Havre AC has not changed — yet.
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.
Abdoulaye Touré 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Molina has his answer from Le Havre AC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Halmstad will make the call about Dahiss Mendy this week. Le Havre AC have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Le Havre AC 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.
Felix Mambimbi 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rassoul Ndiaye 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Le Havre AC has been clear about where Elysée Logbo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Paul Argney had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Felix Mambimbi 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sofiane Boufal 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Rousseau and Le Havre AC agree another 4 years.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joan Tincres has his answer from Le Havre AC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Felix Mambimbi 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 José Paradela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Le Havre AC, another week without a signature from Andrés Vombergar.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Le Havre AC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Lionel Mpasi has written the date down.
5 goals in 33 games at Hatayspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Le Havre AC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Noam Obougou Jacquet 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Le Havre AC has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Felix Mambimbi 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 José Paradela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Elysée Logbo has come up in conversations Le Havre AC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and Le Havre AC 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Le Havre AC told Adrien Julloux something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Junior Mwanga signs something — a contract at Le Havre AC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Le Havre AC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Le Havre AC would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Felix Mambimbi 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 José Paradela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: CF Montreal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elysée Logbo. The answer from Le Havre AC has not changed — yet.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Philippe Roussel 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thomas Martinez 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. Denis Marchand is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noam Obougou Jacquet, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Le Havre AC 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Djordan Mongo-Mpeho and Le Havre AC agree another 4 years.
In brief
The dugoutObed Nkambadio asks for a word with the manager
Position 2, 61 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Le Havre AC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Paradela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Le Havre AC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Randers runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 20, and nobody at Le Havre AC signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Molina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Paradela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrés Vombergar 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.
3 goals in 24 games at Hatayspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Le Havre AC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lionel Mpasi
Felix Mambimbi 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.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Lionel Mpasi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.