124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dijon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dijon can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dijon have gone to Olympique de Marseille 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at RC Strasbourg is saying, and nobody at Dijon is enjoying the guessing.
The offer from Chamois Niortais for Benjamin Camolli 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.
Luck Zogbé 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayman Sellouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Dijon and FC Nantes have settled on $4.8M. 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dijon, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: RC Strasbourg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ayman Sellouf 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luck Zogbé 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.
Dijon asked and LOSC Lille 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ayman Sellouf has his answer from Dijon; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dijon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dijon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 May 2030
Luck Zogbé 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 Dijon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luck Zogbé 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.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Bates knocks on the manager's door
SquadThe training reports on César Obongo are not good
The clubs have shaken hands with Olympique de Marseille; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dijon can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: LOSC Lille keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luck Zogbé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dijon can pretend not to have heard.
Rominigue Kouamé 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adel Lembezat 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dijon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
31 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Next up on the road: US Creteil, position 13. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.