Marked for Aaron Issumo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Jan 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Stade Rennais, and it could have been more.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
33 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market11 Jan 2027
Chamois Niortais pay $1.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad11 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 AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Léon 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of André Silva at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AJ Auxerre.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateus Pasinato, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Monaco, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arthur Piedfort and AJ Auxerre agree another 5 years.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every AJ Auxerre game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Le Havre AC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Elisha Owusu dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Donovan Léon
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Nathan Buayi-Kiala 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 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 AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Léon 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over LOSC Lille, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AJ Auxerre.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I watch every AJ Auxerre game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Le Havre AC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
6 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Elisha Owusu
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tom Negrel is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Léon 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 terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kévin Danois 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Romain Faivre’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AJ Auxerre.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Le Havre AC's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Le Havre AC has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Le Havre AC and FC Nantes, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reda Khadra 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Le Havre AC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Aaron Issumo
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Le Havre AC were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Donovan Léon is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Donovan Léon: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match16 Sep 2026
A 0‑0 win over Le Havre AC, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.
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 AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The kick that got away from Bryan Okoh
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.94. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Le Havre AC to sit and watch. I want to come back to AJ Auxerre and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Reda Khadra 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Le Havre AC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Le Havre AC
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Le Havre AC would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market17 Aug 2026
Le Havre AC have made Benoît Poulain available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.