Marked for Noah Marec
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. EA Guingamp will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market16 Aug 2027
The deal that would have taken Stanislas Kielt to FC Fleury 91 has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to EA Guingamp with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around EA Guingamp they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
EA Guingamp had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Villarreal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Amine Bassi 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 targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and EA Guingamp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
This league is too small for Ramón Vilà
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. EA Guingamp will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
A loan move for Nordin Jackers is in the works
EA Guingamp have made the call to Racing Genk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. EA Guingamp will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. EA Guingamp lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. EA Guingamp have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nicolas Florival had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market2 Aug 2027
Louis Bury hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what EA Guingamp can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Danny Namaso 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 EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad2 Aug 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation EA Guingamp are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Rouen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around EA Guingamp they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Standard Liege is saying, and nobody at EA Guingamp is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Sérigné Fayé arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sérigné Fayé has, at EA Guingamp, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kelvin Amian 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Bassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market19 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Noah Marec again, and this time the name on the line is ESTAC Troyes. EA Guingamp are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 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 EA Guingamp can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer from ESTAC Troyes for Noah Marec 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The chase for Julien Astic ended with $780.0K changing hands and Clermont Foot out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“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; EA Guingamp are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Julien Astic gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Julien Astic has just signed for EA Guingamp, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Kelvin Amian and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Bassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Toulouse FC have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
OGC Nice pay $10.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market21 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market21 Jun 2027
LOSC Lille pay $7.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market21 Jun 2027
“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 EA Guingamp, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Michelin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Noah Marec gets it from the manager
“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 dugout21 Jun 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout24 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” EA Guingamp may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. EA Guingamp will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market24 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolas Florival will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around EA Guingamp the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Gautier Ott 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 dugout24 May 2027
Amadou Samoura has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at EA Guingamp 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolas Florival will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around EA Guingamp the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at EA Guingamp can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Amine Bassi 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.
The dugout1 Mar 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.” Yann Vincent chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noah Marec, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. EA Guingamp lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Amine Bassi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match27 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. ESTAC Troyes will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Feb 2027
0‑3 to USL Dunkerque, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match8 Feb 2027
EA Guingamp are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match6 Feb 2027
11 matches without defeat, and then USL Dunkerque. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Match6 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” EA Guingamp may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Feb 2027
48 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Kelvin Amian and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.