Marked for Rafaël Baraka
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jul 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Lavallois they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jul 2036
Émile Dumont 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 Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
$47.0K settles it between the clubs for Maxim Pechenkin
Paris FC have accepted the money. What Stade Lavallois do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OGC Nice keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Amadou Cissé 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 targets28 Jul 2036
Stade Lavallois asked and AS Saint-Etienne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Stade Lavallois training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Molina 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 dugout28 Jul 2036
The manager makes an example of Martino Neri
“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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stade Lavallois can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jun 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Molina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Lavallois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market30 Jun 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Stade Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jun 2036
Manuel Mbollo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
Stade Lavallois asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Jun 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Molina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
A loan move for Petar Krastev is in the works
Stade Lavallois have made the call to FC Metz. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
A loan move for Vincent Renault is in the works
Stade Lavallois have made the call to SM Caen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout30 Jun 2036
The manager makes an example of Pierre Morel
“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 dugout30 Jun 2036
Lucca Lucker 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 Lucca Lucker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Apr 2036
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings28 Apr 2036
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Francesco Molina 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.
Squad28 Apr 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Apr 2036
US Concarneau left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Apr 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Apr 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isac Galván, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Apr 2036
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market28 Apr 2036
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohamed Marwan has his answer from Stade Lavallois; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Apr 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mahmoud Marwan
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Lavallois lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Words at Stade Lavallois training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Molina 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.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Rafaël Baraka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Apr 2036
At 23 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.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match19 Apr 2036
A 1‑0 win over Le Puy Foot 43, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Apr 2036
The Stade Lavallois dressing room has split into 4 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 4 separate groups, 3 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
Boardroom21 Apr 2036
115% of the income goes out in wages at Stade Lavallois
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
Marked 7.37. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Mar 2036
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Match22 Mar 2036
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Red Star, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 Mar 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
“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.
Match22 Mar 2036
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Manuel Mbollo 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.
The terraces24 Mar 2036
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Martino Neri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
The manager makes an example of Ancelin Mérieux
“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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucca Lucker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Mar 2036
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Match8 Mar 2036
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad10 Mar 2036
The match ball belongs to Martino Neri, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Mar 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
Marked 9.33 — 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 ratings10 Mar 2036
Joshua Mvouama was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Mar 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Stade Lavallois can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Jan 2036
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
Stade Lavallois had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at LB Chateauroux, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market21 Jan 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandru Oancea will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Lavallois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stade Lavallois have done the hard part with RC Strasbourg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings21 Jan 2036
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
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.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérôme Royer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Rafaël Baraka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Jan 2036
0‑1 to FC Rouen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Dec 2035
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 152 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
Match29 Dec 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sébastien Colin. 3‑1 against FC Villefranche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Molina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces31 Dec 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jérôme Royer has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Daniel Petit and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Ancelin Mérieux
“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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2035
Marked 8.27 — 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 ratings31 Dec 2035
Ninety minutes of Rafaël Baraka at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Stade Lavallois.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
102% of the income goes out in wages at Stade Lavallois
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Dec 2035
A brace, and Sébastien Colin takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sébastien Colin provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad3 Dec 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sam Sanna and Stade Lavallois agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Mahmoud Marwan 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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Rafaël Baraka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Dec 2035
“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.
Player ratings3 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Dec 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2035
Francesco Molina 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Marwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Nov 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Nov 2035
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad12 Nov 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stade Lavallois are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Market12 Nov 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market12 Nov 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Manuel Mbollo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
Daniel Petit asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Oct 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Oct 2035
A move Isac Galván would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Isac Galván is living that version at Stade Lavallois, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Mahmoud Marwan 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.
Boardroom15 Oct 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Al-Hussein Shakir has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stade Lavallois have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad15 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Too much change too quickly at Stade Lavallois
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Pablo Muñoz gets it from the manager
“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 dugout15 Oct 2035
Lucca Lucker asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market15 Oct 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mahdi Maghlout signs something — a contract at Stade Lavallois or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Oct 2035
473 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Stade Lavallois know what they have.
Squad8 Oct 2035
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Match6 Oct 2035
FC Fleury 91 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Rafaël Baraka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market8 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stade Lavallois, another week without a signature from Ancelin Mérieux.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Richard Blanc named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Richard Blanc is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
Wages swallow 85% of the Stade Lavallois income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.