Marked for Aboubacar Sidibé
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $950.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Lorient drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market14 Jun 2027
Enzo Tacafred has left for FC Nantes in a $1.7M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Aboubacar Sidibé joins from Sochaux in a deal worth $500.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market14 Jun 2027
Clermont Foot pay $920.0K, 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jérémy Gélin 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 AS Nancy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Angers SCO come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sochaux did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Mabrouk Rouaï joins from Valenciennes in a deal worth $490.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad14 Jun 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 Sochaux this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Jun 2027
Aboubacar Sidibé has left for AS Nancy in a $500.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market14 Jun 2027
Arthur Girault is 19, and Sochaux 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.
Squad14 Jun 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Sochaux did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sochaux can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A season average of 6.55 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Sochaux know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Julien Masson 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: AS Nancy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aboubacar Sidibé. The answer from Sochaux has not changed — yet.
Market7 Jun 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.