Marked for Malone Boucard
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at US Orleans, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
US Orleans have gone to AJ Auxerre 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 targets26 Jun 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympique Lyonnais is saying, and nobody at US Orleans is enjoying the guessing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Imad Riahi 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at US Orleans
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zayd El Kandoussi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Esteban Salles knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Esteban Salles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
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 Esteban Mouton is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Apr 2028
9 matches without a win for US Orleans
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around US Orleans are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Apr 2028
Full time on the season at US Orleans
Position 13 on 37 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Chico Lamba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Imad Riahi
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at US Orleans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johann Obiang 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Chico Lamba has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at US Orleans 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad17 Apr 2028
At 19 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The plan did not have a place for Sidney Obissa
Nobody at US Orleans 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adham Ribeiro
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Orleans lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Marked 7.99 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” US Orleans may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Zayd El Kandoussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 Jan 2028
6 matches without a win, and then this, against AS Nancy. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at US Orleans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chico Lamba 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 targets3 Jan 2028
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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Djylian N'Guessan. 1‑0 against AS Nancy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match23 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win for US Orleans
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around US Orleans are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Chico Lamba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at US Orleans
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Johann Obiang was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
Esteban Salles asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Half-satisfied: Mathieu Simon on the draw
“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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Esteban Mouton 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Le Mans FC, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match15 Sep 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. US Orleans scored in the 111th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Imad Riahi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Sep 2027
Still nobody has beaten US Orleans
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
US Orleans asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for US Orleans is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
He is 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Guillaume Khous damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The offer went to LOSC Lille this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 US Orleans, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Zayd El Kandoussi 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Paris FC wanted more than $8.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
US Orleans asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at US Orleans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johann Obiang 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Olympique Lyonnais 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fahd El Khoumisti, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for US Orleans
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around US Orleans are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Zayd El Kandoussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A move Malone Boucard 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. Malone Boucard is living that version at US Orleans, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match20 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, US Orleans do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at US Orleans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Mokwa 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 ratings22 Feb 2027
Imad Riahi runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Looking ahead22 Feb 2027
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. US Orleans will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Wesley Zahibo pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market22 Feb 2027
He is 20, and nobody at US Orleans signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.