Marked for Owen Kouassi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Owen Kouassi 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Cyril Mandouki
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Stade Lavallois are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Owen Kouassi in a row with a teammate
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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
227% of the income goes out in wages at Stade Lavallois
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Owen Kouassi gets it from the manager
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Chamois Niortais, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
5 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Owen Kouassi 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.90, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Teddy Bouriaud
“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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
The one thing David Tebili could not do
Shots: 6, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jules Gaudin finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Stade Lavallois have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
4 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Owen Kouassi in a row with a teammate
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 385% of everything Stade Lavallois earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamadou Samassa, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Tours left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 Stade Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Owen Kouassi 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 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Tebili, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. US Creteil came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
0‑1 against LOSC Lille, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Owen Kouassi in a row with a teammate
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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“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 Stade Lavallois, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amine Saïd, and the manager let it.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Layousse Samb 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Eros Maddy
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Owen Kouassi 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julien Maggiotti. 2‑0 against Bourg-Peronnas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Aug 2026
At 19 years old, Marius Savidan became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kévin Aubeneau knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Stade Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Owen Kouassi in a row with a teammate
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julien Maggiotti. 1‑0 against Sochaux, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
One of those days for Sam Sanna
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of William Bianda
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Marius Savidan is 19, and Stade Lavallois have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Stade Brestois for Layousse Samb was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Owen Kouassi 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
AS Nancy left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamadou Samassa, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
54 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 15, and nobody at Stade Lavallois signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 16, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market17 Aug 2026
Émile Dubois is 16, and Stade Lavallois have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Stade Lavallois have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mamadou Samassa commits to Stade Lavallois for another 1 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Owen Kouassi 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.95 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.89, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over AC Ajaccio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sam Sanna gets it from the manager
“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 ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Eros Maddy runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Layousse Samb 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Owen Kouassi in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cyril Mandouki and Stade Lavallois agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Chamois Niortais, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eros Maddy gets it from the manager
“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.