Marked for Noah Le Gal
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Lorient may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Nov 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at FC Lorient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Nov 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Montassar Talbi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Arsène Kouassi 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.
Match3 Nov 2029
A 1‑0 win over Toulouse FC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Sambou Soumano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“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.
Market8 Oct 2029
Noah Le Gal 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 FC Lorient can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Montassar Talbi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at FC Lorient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arsène Kouassi 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.
Match6 Oct 2029
A 1‑0 win over OGC Nice, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Marked 8.31 — 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.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“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.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Aiyegun Tosin has taken that personally, in the best sense, and FC Lorient are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout3 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Lorient may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
FC Lorient close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 15 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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
The clock did what Le Havre AC would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market3 Sep 2029
Noah Le Gal 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 FC Lorient can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Sep 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Lorient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A row about effort at FC Lorient
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arsène Kouassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daren Mosengo
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Lorient lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad6 Aug 2029
10 seasons and 236 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 FC Lorient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Aug 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad6 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Lorient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market6 Aug 2029
Only the photograph left for Facundo Faija
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Faija will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Lorient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Sambou Soumano 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.
Market6 Aug 2029
Dembo Sylla is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Lorient has been clear about where Dembo Sylla stands, which is more than many ever get.