Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pau FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 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.
Banou 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Galčík 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.49 on the card, and the Pau FC support went home talking about one name.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pau FC dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
7.46, 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jesse Kilo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pau FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Banou 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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Roland Galčík 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pau FC dressing room was either.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
Up for the corner, and Yoann Becker delivers — 7.34
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yoann Becker scored, was marked 7.34, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roland Galčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pau FC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pau FC 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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pau FC can tell you which week it ends in.
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. Yoann Becker will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pau FC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yoann Becker has agreed terms with Angers SCO for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Banou 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roland Galčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dominik Schmid 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 watch every Pau FC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Grenoble Foot 38 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Valenzuela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 11, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pau FC 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 Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Valenzuela 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pau FC is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Marked 6.87 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Atanas Georgiev commits to Pau FC for another 3 years.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bourg-Peronnas? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.52 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pau FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yoann Becker 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 Banou Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Three points for Pau FC, 1‑0 the final word against Sochaux in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Noan Géraux has, at Pau FC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
1 for Yoann Becker, marked 7.59, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Banou Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
AS Saint-Etienne will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Rémi Martin has pre-agreed a move to Pau FC, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yoann Becker. 1‑0 against FC Fleury 91, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Dominik Schmid 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Pau FC 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.
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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Madaoua Tchiva 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pau FC could ask drops and the wages Salvatore Cerbone can ask rise.
“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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Pau FC close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 26 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fraser Thomas has, at Pau FC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Yoann Becker 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 Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade de Reims have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pau FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with EA Guingamp, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Yoann Becker 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.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Schmid 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.
12 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.
SC Bastia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mirco Moretti has pre-agreed a move to Pau FC, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Pau FC 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pau FC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Yoann Becker 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Schmid 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.
Pau FC 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pau FC asked and SC Bastia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pau FC have made the call to Stade de Reims. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Jul 2034
6 new faces, and Pau FC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with LOSC Lille, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Bangfome 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.
A loan enquiry to Olympique Lyonnais: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pau FC, another week without a signature from Ivar Winje.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yoann Becker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Yoann Becker 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 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.
Pau FC asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pau FC, another week without a signature from Salvatore Cerbone.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pau FC are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Pau FC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Nantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Roland Galčík 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 Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Pau FC asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with FC Nantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Yoann Becker 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 Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pau FC are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pau FC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rodez AF, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Schmid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OGC Nice have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yoann Becker has his answer from Pau FC; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pau FC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Modibo Keita 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.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Schmid 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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pau FC could ask drops and the wages Mohamed Sylla can ask rise.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Pau FC has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.