“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dijon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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. Clément Billemaz 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say César Obongo is on it.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dijon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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 Clément Billemaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dijon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every Dijon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Paris 13 Atletico runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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 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.
Dijon asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jordan Marié
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Dijon 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.
The offer went to RC Lens 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michaël Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique de Marseille have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
14 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.
“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.
Clément Billemaz 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Samy Chouchane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paul Gonzalez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Patrick Zabi 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 had been thinking. Clément Billemaz 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dijon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Dijon will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Billemaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michaël Barreto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say César Obongo is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dijon that is a harder question to answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dijon, another week without a signature from Enzo Ketterle.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Dijon will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
28 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.
378 appearances across 20 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade Brestois keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
$510.0K settles it between the clubs for Ziyad Baha
Olympique de Marseille have accepted the money. What Dijon do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dijon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Dijon asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Dijon have gone to Stade Brestois 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.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is saying, and nobody at Dijon is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Marié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique de Marseille have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Marié 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Paul Delecroix has written the date down.
“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.
Everything agreed with Olympique Lyonnais, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Marié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Young Boys have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dijon know it.
“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 Dijon, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dijon told César Obongo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dijon are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Waly Diouf 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade Brestois keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dijon know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Marié 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 Deportivo La Coruña 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 offer went to Stade Brestois 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.
“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 deal with LOSC Lille 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.
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.
At 19 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 had been thinking. Jordan Marié 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say César Obongo is on it.
Julio Tavares 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Marié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dijon know it.
“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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say César Obongo is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dijon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dijon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 May 2027
Waly Diouf 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 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Moïse Adilehou's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Julio Tavares 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.
At 23 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Lenny Lacroix has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Waly Diouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Dijon will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Valenciennes next, and one man in the Dijon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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 Waly Diouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Dijon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. US Concarneau had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julien Domingues provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
César Obongo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 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.
Dijon had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stade de Reims, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Dijon now know that too.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Marié 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 FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 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.
A 2‑0 win over Quevilly-Rouen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Hamza Sakhi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Samy Chouchane
Alexandr Vasyutin 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.
Three points for Dijon, 1‑0 the final word against SM Caen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Lenny Lacroix 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.
Marked 7.97. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Paul Gonzalez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Dijon will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
19 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.
Something was said to Michaël Barreto and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brandon Ndezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
36 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.
Alexandr Vasyutin 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. Brandon Ndezi 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
51 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lenny Lacroix 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.
Something was said to Michaël Barreto and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and US Concarneau spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
At 23 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dijon told Alexandr Vasyutin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Alexandr Vasyutin: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
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.