It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Angelini 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AC Ajaccio know it.
Squad16 Dec 2030
A last season at home is what Nicolás Muñoz is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Barrionuevo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee AC Ajaccio could ask drops and the wages Ayoub Akabou can ask rise.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Paris Brunner will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at AC Ajaccio escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AC Ajaccio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AC Ajaccio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Paris Brunner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Elisha Owusu 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 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.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
A brace, and Daniel Meyer takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Meyer provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AC Ajaccio heard it as anything else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AC Ajaccio and Valenciennes in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Valenciennes left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Elisha Owusu 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AC Ajaccio know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Josué Grelaud
The dugoutParis Brunner is still being punished for one mistake
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
AC Ajaccio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AJ Auxerre, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Paris FC will make the call about Daniel Meyer this week. AC Ajaccio have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
AC Ajaccio offered $140.0K; AS Nancy 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“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; AC Ajaccio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 AC Ajaccio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Paris Brunner 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 Apr 2030
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benn Ward 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AC Ajaccio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Paris Brunner 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benn Ward 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 is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pierre Baron 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. Laurent Marty 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yann Perrot 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ferris N'Goma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AC Ajaccio. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at AC Ajaccio the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Nicolás Muñoz on the training pitch
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio 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 Benn Ward was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alpha Diallo, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
14 new faces, and AC Ajaccio 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Ajaccio can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at AC Ajaccio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at US Creteil is saying, and nobody at AC Ajaccio is enjoying the guessing.
AC Ajaccio have gone to Paris FC 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.
Paris Brunner 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chamois Niortais is saying, and nobody at AC Ajaccio is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and AC Ajaccio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matteo Izzo has just signed for AC Ajaccio, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lucas Rosier and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Paris Brunner 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
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 1‑3 Jean Dupuis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Robin Maulun 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Paris Brunner 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AC Ajaccio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean Dupuis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.