Marked for Louis Dore
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Gaëtan Courtet, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Gaëtan Courtet
“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
Steady
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Dijon left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdelwahed Wahib, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Jean Louchet 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 Valenciennes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
The one thing Rento Takaoka could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A first senior shirt for Kaïs Lesueur
Every debut is a small story about the future: Kaïs Lesueur, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑4 by Tours, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alexis Mirbach knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrew Omobamidele, and the manager let it.
Boardroom13 Dec 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Louis Dore and Valenciennes agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 5.48, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
Maxime Dupé has been here 8 seasons
125 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market5 Jul 2027
Pescara come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FC Nantes did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Wesley Saïd 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Valenciennes
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market5 Jul 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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 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 Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Valenciennes will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market5 Jul 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Valenciennes signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market5 Jul 2027
Louis Dore is 19, and Valenciennes 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.