Marked for Esteban Alberto
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Bourg-Peronnas have gone to AS Nancy 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Fee done, terms next for Louis Collet
Bourg-Peronnas and AJ Auxerre have settled on $250.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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 Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Do Marcolino is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at RC Lens is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
Squad14 Jun 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Montpellier HSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Bourg-Peronnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bourg-Peronnas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with AS Nancy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Quentin Lacour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Bourg-Peronnas asked and AS Saint-Etienne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Sylla, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maher Bouyadel 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Nafta 1903 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bourg-Peronnas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sidi Cissé 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Do Marcolino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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.” Thomas Jacquet chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Bourg-Peronnas
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Sidi Cissé
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Beimarse Tankiev
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against US Concarneau? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.