“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 The request is on a desk at FC Nantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Wesley Saïd 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.
“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; FC Nantes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cesena has been clear about where Mathieu Deplagne stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cesena, another week without a signature from Matteo Guidi.
The offer from Toulouse FC for Kader Bamba 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.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19, and nobody at FC Nantes signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Nantes 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 The request is on a desk at FC Nantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
41 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Vicenza will make the call about Alexis Mirbach this week. FC Nantes have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Nantes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rémy Cabella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Bourg-Peronnas for Loan Merrifield 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.
Orel Mangala 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.
A season average of 7.09 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FC Nantes know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
OGC Nice paid $6.6M and FC Nantes took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fabien Centonze 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.
“I did not go to Paris Saint-Germain to sit and watch. I want to come back to FC Nantes and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bourg-Peronnas will make the call about Loan Merrifield this week. FC Nantes have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Shots: 13. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The chase for Luca Dias ended with $1.9M changing hands and Nimes out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Stade Rennais for Loan Merrifield 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.
Wesley Saïd 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.
He is 20, and nobody at FC Nantes signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loan Merrifield will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Nantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Wesley Saïd 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.
“I did not go to Paris Saint-Germain to sit and watch. I want to come back to FC Nantes and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
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.
Position 17 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loan Merrifield will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Nantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fabien Centonze 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Nantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loan Merrifield will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Nantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I watch every FC Nantes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Paris Saint-Germain runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Nantes have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Nantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fabien Centonze 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The offer from Bourg-Peronnas for Loan Merrifield 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.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Nantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at FC Nantes hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Stade Lavallois paid $250.0K and FC Nantes took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Fabien Centonze 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 fee is $3.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AJ Auxerre drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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 Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.38 — 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Nantes have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The offer from Bourg-Peronnas for Loan Merrifield 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.
Johann Lepenant 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.