Marked for Evan Irene
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Aug 2036
The knee: Wahid Faghir out for 24 days
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Brestois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Aug 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and US Concarneau waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Stade Brestois is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market4 Aug 2036
ETO Győr come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Stade Brestois did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Aug 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Brestois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market4 Aug 2036
Edhy Zuliani 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 Brestois can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Tyrese Noubissie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zurich have kept their man, and Stade Brestois go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Home is on Joshua's mind
“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 Brestois are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Words at Stade Brestois training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Aug 2035
Daniel Au Yeong damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Match18 Aug 2035
No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.
Market20 Aug 2035
Isak Jansson 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 AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Aug 2035
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AJ Auxerre have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market20 Aug 2035
Only the photograph left for Evan Irene
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evan Irene will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Đorđe Đorđić 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.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Kalle Koponen gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kalle Koponen has just signed for AJ Auxerre, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom20 Aug 2035
8 academy graduates step up at AJ Auxerre
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Ryan Rodin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jul 2035
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market23 Jul 2035
“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.
Market23 Jul 2035
Evan Irene has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
The deal with AS Saint-Etienne 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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Đorđe Đorđić 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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Isak Jansson 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 targets23 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Lorient have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enzo Crombez, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
Caleb Kramer 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 Caleb Kramer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2035
“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jun 2035
“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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
The deal with Monaco 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.
Market25 Jun 2035
Add another name to the list: FC Villefranche have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Đorđe Đorđić. The answer from AJ Auxerre has not changed — yet.
Market25 Jun 2035
Only the photograph left for Evan Irene
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evan Irene will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Đorđe Đorđić 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Isak Jansson 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 targets25 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Lorient have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enzo Crombez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Mar 2035
0‑3 to Stade Rennais, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market19 Mar 2035
“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 Brestois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Mar 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Saavedra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Brestois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
Gioele Zacchi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Brestois have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Mar 2035
No end in sight to Stade Brestois's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stade Brestois has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Mar 2035
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Mattéo Mach 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Stade Brestois training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexsandro Ribeiro 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 dugout19 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Mar 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 AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Isak Jansson 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
Jonathan Santos arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonathan Santos has, at AJ Auxerre, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Rodin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Otabek Ahadov, and the manager let it.
Market5 Mar 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AJ Auxerre, another week without a signature from Otabek Ahadov.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Santos and AJ Auxerre agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Mar 2035
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.52 on the card, and the AJ Auxerre support went home talking about one name.
Match3 Mar 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.