Marked for Aly Sidibé
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Cándido Ramírez out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ESTAC Troyes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
ESTAC Troyes have gone to LOSC Lille 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and ESTAC Troyes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market19 Jul 2027
The fee is $1.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Monaco drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Moustapha Mbow 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.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
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: Samuel Nibombé from Monaco for $2.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Seny Koumbassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Squad31 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 May 2027
ESTAC Troyes are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market31 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ESTAC Troyes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 May 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 ESTAC Troyes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Merwan Ifnaoui 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ESTAC Troyes can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Aly Sidibé
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mounaïm El Idrissy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Apr 2027
ESTAC Troyes are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 51 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market5 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ESTAC Troyes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Alassane Pléa, 34, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Apr 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 ESTAC Troyes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Apr 2027
ESTAC Troyes make home a hard place to visit
10 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tom Akpakoun is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. ESTAC Troyes have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at ESTAC Troyes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alassane Pléa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
Aly Sidibé hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ESTAC Troyes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Moustapha Mbow 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Sankhoun Diawara is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation ESTAC Troyes did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Merwan Ifnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Feb 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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 ESTAC Troyes know it.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Amar Fatah runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Paolo Gozzi
7.61, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ESTAC Troyes had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Looking ahead
A test against the best for ESTAC Troyes
-
Market
Xavier Chavalerin is free to find somewhere else
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Nobody could get near Amar Fatah
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 2027
Ismaël Boura has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ESTAC Troyes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Feb 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 ESTAC Troyes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. ESTAC Troyes have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Merwan Ifnaoui 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and ESTAC Troyes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ESTAC Troyes told Kandet Diawara something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ESTAC Troyes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nidal Čelik is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ESTAC Troyes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at ESTAC Troyes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merwan Ifnaoui 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.64. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Adrien Monfray
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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Antoine Gauthier chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over FC Rouen, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
96 minutes played. Fréderic Soelle Soelle found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and US Boulogne went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fréderic Soelle Soelle did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The step up is real for Nidal Čelik
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ESTAC Troyes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over US Boulogne, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Fréderic Soelle Soelle 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Merwan Ifnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.