Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Paris 13 Atletico waiting with a shirt. Nobody at LB Chateauroux is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
LB Chateauroux have gone to Olympique Lyonnais 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.
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.
LB Chateauroux asked and RC Lens said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 LB Chateauroux know it.
Loïck Piquionne 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The clubs have shaken hands with Angers SCO; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. LB Chateauroux have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at LB Chateauroux, and it is not being withdrawn.
Olympique Lyonnais wanted more than $220.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Haïdara 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.
$2.2M on the table at Le Havre AC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jad Koembo 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.
Add another name to the list: Paradou have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Allan Masuke. The answer from LB Chateauroux has not changed — yet.
AS Saint-Etienne have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Yanis Chahid 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bakary Sako and LB Chateauroux agree another 2 years.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lassana Diakhaby 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 dugout8 Mar 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Guillaume Le Gall to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jad Koembo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Lucas Lavallée is on it.
“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 LB Chateauroux, and it is not being withdrawn.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.93, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yanis Chahid 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.
Jad Koembo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. FC Rouen had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Noa Mupemba to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against FC Rouen, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market22 Feb 2027
Allan Masuke returns from a loan that gave him nothing
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Akim Djaha
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Yanis Chahid 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.
He is 22 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lassana Diakhaby 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Guillaume Le Gall kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at LB Chateauroux no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. LB Chateauroux have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LB Chateauroux can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with FC Annecy 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AJ Auxerre 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 Yanis Chahid 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. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and LB Chateauroux go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LB Chateauroux lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Yanis Chahid will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at LB Chateauroux escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
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.
Yanis Chahid 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.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Samba Konaté did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
He is 23 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 AS Nancy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 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.” Julien Schmitt kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Yanis Chahid 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.
“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 LB Chateauroux, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Guillaume Le Gall to a room that had heard them before.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Versailles in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutAkim Djaha has become a man the manager trusts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” LB Chateauroux may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at LB Chateauroux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Haïdara 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.
Loïck Piquionne 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paris 13 Atletico in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at LB Chateauroux 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.
Nobody at LB Chateauroux is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Samba Konaté, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over USL Dunkerque, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Everybody at Pau FC saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Anthony Briançon 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Julien Schmitt on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Noa Mupemba takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noa Mupemba provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Noa Mupemba. 2‑1 against Bourg-Peronnas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Yanis Chahid 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 watch every LB Chateauroux game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pau FC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Guillaume Le Gall, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
LB Chateauroux have made the call to Anderlecht. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
LB Chateauroux have made the call to Junior. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Pau FC have gone to Toulouse FC 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Daylam Meddah was one of the reasons people came, and $1.6M does not replace that by itself.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.5M — a club that wants Aron Dønnum enough to be asked twice.
The deal with LB Chateauroux 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.
Pau FC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juventus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.