Marked for Laurent Mallet
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at CSM Slatina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 Jul 2028
Andrei Traşcu has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Slatina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Gheorghe 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metaloglobus Bucharest have kept their man, and CSM Slatina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Vlad Andreş 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Chrobry Głogów 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jaheden Rocolat Delmas, and the manager let it.
Market17 Jul 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at CSM Slatina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Ákos Nistor: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSM Slatina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Valentin Gheorghe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A move Gonçalo Sarzedas would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gonçalo Sarzedas is living that version at CSM Slatina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Simion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Door shut on Rubio
CSM Slatina asked and Petrolul Ploiești said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Jan 2028
FC Bihor Oradea left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of António Montez
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Feb 2027
Laurent Mallet damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stade Lavallois may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Stade Lavallois 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Antoine Mendy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dylan Mbayo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stade Lavallois people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market25 Jan 2027
Yohan Tavares 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 Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The deal with Stade Rennais 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.
Squad25 Jan 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 Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match23 Jan 2027
1‑2 to SC Bastia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Mamadou Samassa
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stade Lavallois have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with OGC Nice, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OGC Nice keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Thibaut Vargas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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 targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Stade Lavallois go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Ethan Clavreul has come up in conversations Stade Lavallois were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.