Marked for Evra Kigni Chabaud
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Neftchi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market16 Dec 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alhassance Bamba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neftchi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Musa Qurbanlı 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.
Match14 Dec 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arkhip Kazantsev, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
A promise honoured for Thiago Rosa
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftchi told Thiago Rosa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad16 Dec 2030
6 new faces, and Neftchi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Nov 2030
Neftchi win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 105th minute. Shahdag Qusar will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Neftchi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match23 Nov 2030
The run is over for Neftchi
8 matches without defeat, and then Zira. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Alen Korošec 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Neftchi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Musa Qurbanlı was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Ino Vuko wants to go home
“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 Neftchi know it.
Match23 Nov 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2029
A fracture rules Nathan Dekoke out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Villefranche will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Rodez AF; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 Villefranche, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Villefranche have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ESTAC Troyes have kept their man, and FC Villefranche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fernando Fonseca and FC Villefranche agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Fernando Fonseca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at FC Villefranche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Stambouli 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.