Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Milan Gharibian obliged against SM Caen. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Clermont Foot.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Maxence Soulet, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Clermont Foot will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Lucão 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and JS Saoura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Aël Belangote and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Toulouse FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Clermont Foot people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Clermont Foot have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Union Brescia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Clermont Foot, 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 7.94 for the rest of 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 Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Pacos de Ferreira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Clermont Foot have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Paris 13 Atletico 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Clermont Foot, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Clermont Foot have made the call to SC Bastia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all 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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Théo Ramousse will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Clermont Foot the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Nimaga 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. FC Annecy have kept their man, and Clermont Foot go back to a list with one name crossed 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 Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clermont Foot have made the call to Sochaux. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Habib Keïta commits to Clermont Foot for another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clermont Foot have made the call to Grenoble Foot 38. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to AS Saint-Etienne: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nobody at Clermont Foot will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Luís Hemir has come up in conversations Clermont Foot were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Allan Ackra has left for Sochaux in a $1.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Clermont Foot are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 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.
Théo Ramousse 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxence Soulet is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Nimaga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Clermont Foot know it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Abdellah Baallal may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Yacine Titraoui 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Clermont Foot. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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.
Yacine Titraoui 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxence Soulet is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bakary Nimaga 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Clermont Foot told Yacine Titraoui something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxence Soulet and Clermont Foot agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Clermont Foot know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Clermont Foot, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7.56, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Clermont Foot have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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. Le Mans FC have kept their man, and Clermont Foot go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Clermont Foot will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Clermont Foot pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
7.56, 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.
Bakary Nimaga 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.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Théo Guivarch, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Maïdine Douane was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 Jacques Adam left the room before anybody could ask which.
Johan Gastien 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.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Nimaga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacques Adam after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.