Marked for Hugo Maameri
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 May 2037
“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.
Squad18 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 May 2037
Ibrahima Sissoko 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.
Market18 May 2037
The Noah Nsoki story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Noah Nsoki signs something — a contract at Valenciennes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad18 May 2037
Nathan Cooper 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 Nathan Cooper trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 May 2037
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Hugo Maameri leaves Valenciennes the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Hugo Maameri out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valenciennes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Daou Diomandé 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Sissoko 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Hugo Maameri out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valenciennes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Feb 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Feb 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Olan Lamaille-Dacalor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valenciennes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market23 Feb 2037
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Núñez wants continental football; whether Valenciennes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Ibrahima Sissoko 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
Upbeat
Squad16 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Hugo Maameri out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valenciennes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match16 Feb 2037
Valenciennes are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 41 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market16 Feb 2037
Harry Edwards 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 Valenciennes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Daou Diomandé 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.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Nicholas Alme Bakke 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.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Feb 2037
Hugo Maameri breaks a bone — 53 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Feb 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valenciennes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Kaidon Robinson: 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.” Valenciennes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Daou Diomandé 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.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Sissoko 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.
Market9 Feb 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Feb 2037
Hugo Maameri breaks a bone — 60 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Ibrahima Sissoko 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.
Market2 Feb 2037
AS Nancy are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Valenciennes will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad2 Feb 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vasileios Theofanopoulos, and the manager let it.
Market2 Feb 2037
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Valenciennes money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jan 2037
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Valenciennes have had the benefit of it.
Market5 Jan 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valenciennes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Hugo Maameri: 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.” Valenciennes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Noah Nsoki is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.64 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Jan 2037
Chamois Niortais left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
One of those days for Noah Nsoki
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 ratings5 Jan 2037
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market5 Jan 2037
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.