2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
A brace, and Beni Makouana takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Beni Makouana provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Rennais is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Ewen Jaouen 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words at Stade Rennais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Merlin 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Rennais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stade Rennais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Montpellier HSC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stade Rennais is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Àlex Delgado ended with $5.7M changing hands and Real Madrid out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Lucas Michal 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sam Amo-Ameyaw was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Taigy Dugard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SM Caen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SM Caen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade de Reims have kept their man, and SM Caen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SM Caen have done the hard part with Olympique Lyonnais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Omari Kellyman 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.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Valenciennes waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal that would have taken Jean-Luc Leroux to SC Bastia has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to SM Caen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$3.5M on the table at Stade de Reims. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique de Marseille have kept their man, and SM Caen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $270.0K — a club that wants Théodore Moulin enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SM Caen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SM Caen can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Olympique de Marseille this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Olympique Lyonnais were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$200.0K on the table at OGC Nice. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SM Caen can pretend not to have heard.
Omari Kellyman 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kufre Eta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 54 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SM Caen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omari Kellyman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sohaib Naïr 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SM Caen, another week without a signature from Arnaud Bodart.
In brief
Squad15 new faces, and SM Caen are still learning each other
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutJean-Luc Leroux has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SM Caen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mateo Alcoba has just signed for SM Caen, and for once the answer mattered.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words at SM Caen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omari Kellyman 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.
Marked 7.36 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SM Caen can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marcos Narváez is living that version at SM Caen, and it tends to show in the first month.
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Omari Kellyman 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Yanis Sellami 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.
The offer from Quevilly-Rouen for Yanis Sellami was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SM Caen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around SM Caen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joshua Dago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SM Caen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal that would have taken Laurent Schneider to Olympique de Marseille has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to SM Caen with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Carlos Favero has, at SM Caen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Stade Rennais were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SM Caen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SM Caen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SM Caen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SM Caen have done the hard part with Zurich, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$590.0K was the most the club would pay and AJ Auxerre were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Clermont Foot waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal with Olympique Lyonnais is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SM Caen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Le Puy Foot 43 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
7.67, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
SM Caen have gone to AS Saint-Etienne with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
1‑4 against Paris Saint-Germain, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Omari Kellyman 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.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Yanis Sellami 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. SM Caen will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SM Caen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SM Caen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Yanis Sellami 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Kissanga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SM Caen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SM Caen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Steven Baseya has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joe Rodon, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Rémi Olivier to a room that had heard them before.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SM Caen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Don Ndombele has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Dell 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SM Caen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joe Rodon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SM Caen heard it as anything else.
Dell 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.
SM Caen asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SM Caen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stade Briochin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dell provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kieran Morrison provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SM Caen have done the hard part with FC Nantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Saint-Etienne have kept their man, and SM Caen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Borja Calvo has just signed for SM Caen, and for once the answer mattered.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around SM Caen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SM Caen can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SM Caen have done the hard part with AS Saint-Etienne, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabin Skrela will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SM Caen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Words at SM Caen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joe Rodon 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SM Caen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jean-Luc Leroux has his answer from SM Caen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SM Caen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
$610.0K on the table at RC Strasbourg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Words at SM Caen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joe Rodon 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique de Marseille have kept their man, and SM Caen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Joshua Dago 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SM Caen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SM Caen have done the hard part with Stade Rennais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
SM Caen asked and Stade Rennais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joe Rodon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SM Caen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ebroni Gnoan has his answer from SM Caen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jacopo Seghetti is in the works
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SM Caen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 SM Caen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$550.0K on the table at Stade de Reims. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Omari Kellyman 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Saint-Etienne have kept their man, and SM Caen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Sohaib Naïr 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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SM Caen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SM Caen can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SC Aubagne Air Bel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SM Caen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.8M — a club that wants Yassin Belkhdim enough to be asked twice.
$550.0K was the most the club would pay and Stade de Reims were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joe Rodon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. T.J. Tahid has just signed for SM Caen, and for once the answer mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Jules Bouffandeau again, and this time the name on the line is Le Puy Foot 43. SM Caen are listening politely and promising nothing.