Marked for Raphaël Michel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
Raphaël Michel damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Aug 2027
66 days out for Hernán Luna after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Lorient will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield Wednesday have kept their man, and FC Lorient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Lorient have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Noah Cadiou
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. FC Lorient will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Hapoel Kfar Saba have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Nathaniel Adjei
“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
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and US Orleans waiting with a shirt. Nobody at FC Lorient is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Raphaël Michel damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad9 Aug 2027
76 days out for Hernán Luna after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Lorient will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Aug 2027
US Orleans come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FC Lorient did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Aug 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 FC Lorient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and FC Lorient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market9 Aug 2027
The phone has started ringing about Benjamin Leroy again, and this time the name on the line is Toulouse FC. FC Lorient are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edin Višća commits to FC Lorient for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raphaël Michel
37 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Hernán Luna breaks a bone — 85 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Montassar Talbi has come up in conversations FC Lorient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market2 Aug 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.
Transfer targets2 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Noah Cadiou 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 FC Lorient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Aiyegun Tosin has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FC Lorient will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market2 Aug 2027
The Samir Haribou conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Dijon will make the call about Samir Haribou this week. FC Lorient have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market2 Aug 2027
The Yvon Mvogo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yvon Mvogo signs something — a contract at FC Lorient or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Lorient lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Hernán Luna out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Lorient will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Lorient have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $4.3M sale of Gabin Bernardeau
He is going to FC Nantes, the club has $4.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Transfer targets26 Jul 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
FC Nantes pay $4.3M, 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and FC Lorient did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
FC Lorient offered $650.0K; Grenoble Foot 38 said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jean-Victor Makengo 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.