Marked for Edouard Guitton
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Apr 2028
22 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
The game went through Kelyan Hamadi — 6.77
Marked 6.77 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at AS Korofina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubakar Diabagaté 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Toumani Diakité 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 7.47. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florent Guilavogui, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cheick Kone was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AS Korofina dressing room was either.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Robin Busset 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 Robin Busset trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Ousmane Thiero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS Korofina will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
Babé Diarra 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toumani Diakité was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Cheikhne Ballo
“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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Ousmane Thiero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS Korofina will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market16 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bourama Boiré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Bastien Castet Bellocq has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 2027
“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.
Squad24 May 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 AS Korofina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at AS Korofina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Ouaya 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“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 dugout24 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bourama Boiré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Aboubacar Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at AS Korofina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Babé Diarra 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Something was said to Aboubacar Camara and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ousmane Thiero is on it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AS Korofina will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Korofina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market29 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ousmane Thiero’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Korofina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Ousmane Thiero, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A defender's goal wins it for AS Korofina — 7.56
1 for Babé Diarra, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad22 Mar 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 AS Korofina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Ouaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
At 21 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
AS Korofina are still strangers to each other
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.