Marked for Dan Sinaté
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market11 Jan 2027
Dan Sinaté has left for Toulouse FC in a $2.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Angers SCO training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Mouton 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Carlens Arcus 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Toulouse FC left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market11 Jan 2027
OGC Nice pay $5.7M, 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
AS Nancy come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Toulouse FC did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Toulouse FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
The crowd has taken to Mário Sauer
At 22 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mário Sauer. 2‑0 against Angers SCO, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market11 Jan 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Toulouse FC signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 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. Angers SCO will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Louis Mouton 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 Angers SCO this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match2 Jan 2027
Angers SCO make home a hard place to visit
9 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.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Dan Sinaté again, and this time the name on the line is Toulouse FC. Angers SCO are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Angers SCO training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kévin Malcuit 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from LOSC Lille for Amine Sbaï 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Louis Mouton and Angers SCO agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jordan Lefort 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Angers SCO training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Haris Belkebla 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: OGC Nice have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Harouna Djibirin. The answer from Angers SCO has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Louis Mouton
“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.