Marked for Marvin Illary
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Oct 2035
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Ranjan Neelakandan was at the centre of it, USL Dunkerque were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match22 Oct 2035
FC Annecy refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
Up for the corner, and Diogo Sousa delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Diogo Sousa scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market22 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marvin Illary 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match20 Oct 2035
A 3‑2 win over USL Dunkerque, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elijah Ly commits to FC Annecy for another 5 years.
Squad15 Oct 2035
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 Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
A row about effort at FC Annecy
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Oct 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad15 Oct 2035
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market15 Oct 2035
The Jacques Siwe talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Annecy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead15 Oct 2035
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against USL Dunkerque in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2035
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marvin Illary obliged against FC Rouen. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is FC Annecy.
Match19 Sep 2035
FC Annecy win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 109th minute. FC Rouen will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
A brace, and Marvin Illary takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marvin Illary provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
A row about effort at FC Annecy
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
SC Bastia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mohamed Bawa has pre-agreed a move to FC Annecy, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets24 Sep 2035
FC Annecy 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.
The terraces24 Sep 2035
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Sep 2035
A bad afternoon for FC Annecy against Dijon
0‑2 to Dijon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Sep 2035
Nando Verdoni has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Annecy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Marvin Illary: 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.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lautaro Nicolazzi 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
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 Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2035
A row about effort at FC Annecy
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Lorient have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artur Smiechowski commits to FC Annecy for another 3 years.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Wages eat 88% of everything FC Annecy earn
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 dugout10 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elyes Saïdi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 May 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Annecy may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 May 2035
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Ly 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.
Squad14 May 2035
“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 Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout14 May 2035
The manager makes an example of K'Marni Miller
“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.
The dugout14 May 2035
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.
Market14 May 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout14 May 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abderrezzek Saidi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 May 2035
FC Annecy shop where it costs nothing
Artur Smiechowski signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Nov 2034
First, on 30 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market27 Nov 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
Match25 Nov 2034
Still nobody has beaten FC Annecy
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Nov 2034
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 Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Joseph Lambert gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joseph Lambert has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom27 Nov 2034
RC Lens will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Louis Mezerette has pre-agreed a move to FC Annecy, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad27 Nov 2034
A row about effort at FC Annecy
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elijah Ly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Nov 2034
A 1‑0 win over RC Strasbourg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Oct 2034
The view from the top for FC Annecy
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Jacques Siwe, 33, rolls back the years — 8.05
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Oct 2034
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 Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Nando Verdoni gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nando Verdoni has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
Match28 Oct 2034
USL Dunkerque made FC Annecy work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Dino Matić 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 dugout30 Oct 2034
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcel Jacquet on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.