The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leicester City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Leicester City offered $1.3M; West Ham United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Oliver Skipp 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leicester City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leicester City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 May 2028
Louis Page 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Leicester City is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
40 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Leicester City now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leicester City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leicester City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Admir Bristrić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fran Vieites and Leicester City agree another 4 years.
Oliver Skipp 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.
Squad8 May 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Fran Vieites
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fran Vieites has come out of that comparison in the side, and Leicester City have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leicester City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Leicester City scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Winks will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leicester City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Oliver Skipp 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nathan Opoku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leicester City told Fran Vieites something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutPatson Daka knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leicester City can tell you which week it ends in.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Admir Bristrić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leicester City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
227 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Winks will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Leicester City heard it as anything else.
Oliver Skipp 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Admir Bristrić has his answer from Leicester City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cody Gakpo signs something — a contract at Leicester City 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 Admir Bristrić is on it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leicester City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces20 Mar 2028
The mood at Leicester City 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Martin and Leicester City agree another 3 years.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Samuel Taylor was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Leicester City dressing room was either.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Harry Howell
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leicester City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Oliver Skipp 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Samuel Taylor after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Millwall? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Winks will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leicester City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Oliver Skipp 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oliver Bailey is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Anthony Dixon has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leicester City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The terraces21 Feb 2028
The mood at Leicester City 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bradford City have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” John Lundstram has his answer from Leicester City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Harry Howell
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.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leicester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fleetwood Town have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Oliver Skipp 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leicester City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I watch every Leicester City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wrexham runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leicester City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nathan Opoku has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Oliver Skipp 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.
A 2‑1 win over Newport County, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The mood at Leicester City 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leicester City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Leicester City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Leicester City heard it as anything else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
117 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Burton Albion will make the call about Caleb Okoli this week. Leicester City have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Leicester City than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Queens Park Rangers to sit and watch. I want to come back to Leicester City and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leicester City has been clear about where John Lundstram stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
In brief
SquadAlex Bangura has seen what the next man earns
The offer from Olympique de Marseille for Matthis Abline was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Fleury 91 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Metz have kept their man, and Monaco go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jassim Djelloul is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Monaco has been clear about where Ritchy Valmé stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Monaco. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutBakary Nimaga knocks on the manager's door
The mood at Leicester City 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Leicester City may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Loan watch17 May 2027
Fran Vieites’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Plymouth Argyle. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommy Watson 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leicester City told Patson Daka something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leicester City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Caleb Okoli’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadArchie Gray is training like a man with a point to make
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukás Hrádecký was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
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 Alexandr Golovin is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukás Hrádecký was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Monaco 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monaco, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukás Hrádecký 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.
13 combined actions and 7.41. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
11 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Pafos. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Hákon Arnar Haraldsson is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jean-Baptiste Roy after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Monaco know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monaco heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Alexandr Golovin 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Wout Faes 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.
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 Vanderson is on it.
Derby days make names, and Alexandr Golovin made his against OGC Nice. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
98 minutes played. Hákon Arnar Haraldsson found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and USL Dunkerque went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monaco hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Wout Faes 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Jassim Djelloul obliged against Rodez AF. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monaco.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Jassim Djelloul, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18
A mark of 8.18 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Alexandr Golovin 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mamadou Coulibaly has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monaco heard it as anything else.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Monaco, and 2 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wout Faes 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Folarin Balogun was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 Vanderson is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jean-Baptiste Roy, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutMika Biereth knocks on the manager’s door
The offer from Botafogo for Folarin Balogun was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monaco hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Hákon Arnar Haraldsson 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 Paris FC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wout Faes 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.14, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
0‑4 against Angers SCO, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Monaco can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wout Faes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Wout Faes 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.
“I watch every Monaco game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Quevilly-Rouen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Monaco 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sadibou Sané trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 clean sheets from 9 appearances at Pafos. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
10 appearances in, the average sits at 7.04, and the people who defended him through the autumn are enjoying themselves enormously. Adaptation is a story football only tells backwards.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monaco heard it as anything else.
500 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wout Faes 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Monaco, and 5 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Monaco 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Wout Faes 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 95, against FC Metz, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Monaco, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Something was said to Mohammed Salisu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Mika Biereth is on it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lamine Camara is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Wout Faes 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.
Mamadou Coulibaly 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Monaco 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 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Monaco has been clear about where Philipp Köhn stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Monaco know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Le Havre AC next, and one man in the Monaco dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monaco, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Derby days make names, and Mika Biereth made his against OGC Nice. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Monaco supporters have already started telling it.
Hákon Arnar Haraldsson 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monaco heard it as anything else.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wout Faes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Folarin Balogun and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monaco this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wout Faes 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 watch every Monaco game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Quevilly-Rouen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monaco heard it as anything else.
0‑1 to RC Strasbourg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Wout Faes 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.
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Roy left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Monaco would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wout Faes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Matthis Abline was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The offer from LOSC Lille for Vanderson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bakary Nimaga has, at Monaco, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wout Faes 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mika Biereth was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.