Marked for Mads Eikrem Myklebust
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Jan 2036
Supporters organise against the SC Bastia board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market28 Jan 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at SC Bastia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jan 2036
The chase for Mikayil Faye ended with $7.8M changing hands and LOSC Lille out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Match26 Jan 2036
The wait goes on for SC Bastia
7 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.
Market28 Jan 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Bastia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jan 2036
The phone has started ringing about Elias Benkara again, and this time the name on the line is CS Constantine. SC Bastia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Stanley Mills 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdellah Raihani and SC Bastia agree another 4 years.
Squad28 Jan 2036
David Ozoh 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Nov 2035
Only the photograph left for Mohamed Bawa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Bawa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Bastia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
Clermont Foot will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Michael Aberle has pre-agreed a move to SC Bastia, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Shafiq Nandja 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A row about effort at SC Bastia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Max Williamsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Vincent Paris for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. SC Bastia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“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 SC Bastia know it.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Max Williamsen, and the manager let it.
Loan watch19 Nov 2035
Hugo Wentges’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 14 appearances at Clermont Foot. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Market19 Nov 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Bastia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match15 Sep 2035
No end in sight to SC Bastia's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at SC Bastia has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mads Eikrem Myklebust has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Match15 Sep 2035
SC Bastia cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2035
Door shut on Dell
SC Bastia asked and SM Caen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
AJ Auxerre will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Nessim Rahmani has pre-agreed a move to SC Bastia, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at SC Bastia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony Sifflet 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“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 SC Bastia know it.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at SC Bastia
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Squad
No place for Basil Tuma in the new shape
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The dugout
The view from the dugout