Marked for Matéo Prigent
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2028
There were 9 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Bouna Sarr 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
0‑1 to AS Nancy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Dec 2028
7 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zakaria Bengueddoudj, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Oct 2028
9 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Matéo Prigent: 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.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Bouna Sarr 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
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 ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 8.91 — 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 ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Oct 2028
It needed Andy Pembélé to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Clermont Foot, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad30 Oct 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Jacques Mbiandjeu knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kaïs Fofana, and the manager let it.
Squad15 May 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
Pressure builds in the Bourg-Peronnas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Jean-Pascal Fontaine 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matéo Prigent and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bourg-Peronnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Mar 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.