Marked for Aymerick Nedelec
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Nov 2027
No end in sight to FC Diarra's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at FC Diarra has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Nov 2027
FC Diarra cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Noah Moulin in a row with a teammate
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 Diarra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Hadama Cissé 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Djoliba left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edouard Leclerc, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 0‑2 Bakary Kone left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
Issa Bah told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Issa Bah has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FC Diarra.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match3 Nov 2027
The small margins put FC Diarra out
Out, 0‑0 to Afrique Foot Elite, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑3 to AS Korofina, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market8 Nov 2027
“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 Diarra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Idriss Soumaré ran the middle of the pitch — 6.51
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 6.51, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at FC Diarra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hadama Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FC Diarra can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Hadama Cissé 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Bamako have kept their man, and FC Diarra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Nassim Khamlichi 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one FC Diarra will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market16 Aug 2027
The Sékou Guindo talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Diarra know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
Aboubacar Sidibé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at FC Diarra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael Ranschaert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
Lanciné Keita asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
Abdoul Bode and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mamadou Camara and FC Diarra agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hadama Cissé 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market3 May 2027
He is 20, and nobody at FC Diarra signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad3 May 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.