3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Marked 7.39 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Datro Fofana. 1‑0 against AJ Auxerre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Deivid Washington scored in the 86th minute, RC Lens had already begun thinking about the journey home, and RC Strasbourg took the lot.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Victor Divine is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Deivid Washington. 1‑0 against RC Lens, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Datro Fofana 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Olivier Laurent could afford to be generous.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Conrad Harder did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Karim Coulibaly is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
Irvin Cardona 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.
Genesis Antwi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 RC Strasbourg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 21 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.
8 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.
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Toulouse FC ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when RC Strasbourg equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivanildo Siga and RC Strasbourg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Conrad Harder's mistake
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Panichelli. 1‑0 against FC Metz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Olivier Laurent could afford to be generous.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Conrad Harder, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Conrad Harder 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” RC Strasbourg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Karim Coulibaly, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivanildo Siga has just signed for RC Strasbourg, and for once the answer mattered.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karim Coulibaly. 1‑0 against OGC Nice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Datro Fofana 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. RC Strasbourg told Joaquín Panichelli something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between RC Strasbourg and Olympique de Marseille, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 1‑5 Olivier Laurent left the room before anybody could ask which.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
There were 6 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Conrad Harder, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
It needed Datro Fofana to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Paris Saint-Germain, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Datro Fofana 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Paris Saint-Germain.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mitchel Bakker’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and RC Strasbourg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mike Penders has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samir El Mourabet signs something — a contract at RC Strasbourg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jeyland Mitchell is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Datro Fofana 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Conrad Harder is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Olivier Laurent could afford to be generous.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The name of Fabio Baldé has come up in conversations RC Strasbourg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.