101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Clermont Foot lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Luís Hemir scored in the 86th minute, Stade de Reims had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Clermont Foot took the lot.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Clermont Foot will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Paris 13 Atletico for Massamba N'Diaye 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Ibrahim Coulibaly again, and this time the name on the line is FC Lorient. Clermont Foot are listening politely and promising nothing.
Clermont Foot asked and Trabzonspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 The request is on a desk at Toulouse FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The chase for Allan Ackra ended with $2.2M changing hands and Clermont Foot out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Maxim Glushenkov from Zenit for $102.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Toulouse FC have done the hard part with Zenit, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Toulouse FC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Clermont Foot this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Toulouse FC asked and Pau FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mohamed Bamba 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Benoît Benoit to a room that had heard them before.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Clermont Foot lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Clermont Foot people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Senny Mayulu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 20 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Clermont Foot have done the hard part with Paris Saint-Germain, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The deal that would have taken Massamba N'Diaye to Bourg-Peronnas has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Clermont Foot with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
In brief
SquadWords at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Clermont Foot lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 to AS Saint-Etienne, 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.
“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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 deal with Paris Saint-Germain is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 17 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Nartey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Johan Gastien 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.
Rodez AF next, and one man in the Clermont Foot dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Enzo Cantero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Clermont Foot have no good answer.
Noah Nartey 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Clermont Foot, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“55 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 38 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Clermont Foot.
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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Allan Ackra has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Clermont Foot.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Axel Camblan
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Axel Camblan has come out of that comparison in the side, and Clermont Foot have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 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 Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clermont Foot asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousmane Diop 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mathys Tourraine is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Stade de Reims next, and one man in the Clermont Foot dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Johan Gastien is still in the building
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Clermont Foot will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mathys Tourraine 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.
US Concarneau paid $220.0K and Clermont Foot took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A 1‑0 win over Stade Lavallois, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Emmanuel Robin, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Allan Ackra