Marked for Malcolm Rangon
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sochaux can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$1.5M on the table at Olympique Lyonnais. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Metz drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and EA Guingamp were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
The town asked, and Sochaux paid $1.2M
Pape Sy was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.2M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Fabian Nürnberger 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Sochaux go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market14 Jun 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Ben Traoré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Julien Masson pops up at the right end — 7.94
7.94, 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Fabian Nürnberger 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Yvann Titi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochaux this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Chances created: 9. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Apr 2027
3‑0, and Tanguy Ndombele took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sochaux tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Sochaux
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Sochaux
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabian Nürnberger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Julien Vetro 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Sochaux settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. LB Chateauroux spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Julien Vetro at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sochaux.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thibault Garnier on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Malcolm Rangon is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sochaux
Ben Traoré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Dylan Tavares at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sochaux.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Sochaux game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Grenoble Foot 38 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Diogo signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diogo commits to Sochaux for another 1 years.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Louicius Deedson, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Thibault Garnier, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.