Marked for Benjamin Brantlind
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Mathis Amougou at 21 — 8.22
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mathis Amougou did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Nov 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Alexsandro Ribeiro 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sékou Mara, and the manager let it.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑1 to OGC Nice, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2027
Joaquín Panichelli had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Stade Rennais were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market4 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Oct 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A one-man rearguard from Ante Vuković
There were 6 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Joaquín Panichelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market4 Oct 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at RC Strasbourg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match3 Oct 2027
RC Strasbourg make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at RC Strasbourg.
Match3 Oct 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
Rayo Vallecano pay $35.1M, 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The offer from Montpellier HSC for Sékou Mara 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with AJ Auxerre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market6 Sep 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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets6 Sep 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.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
Supporters turn on the $35.1M sale of Keito Nakamura
He is going to Rayo Vallecano, the club has $35.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
RC Strasbourg close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 28 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Alexsandro Ribeiro 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Idrissa Sabaly is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.