Marked for Mario Balan-Bitca
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Feb 2029
5 matches without a win for Le Havre AC
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Le Havre AC are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Ayumu Seko 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Rassoul Ndiaye 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 dugout26 Feb 2029
Paul Nardi gets it from the manager
“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.
Loan watch26 Feb 2029
“I watch every Le Havre AC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodez AF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match24 Feb 2029
It needed Sala to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against SC Bastia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Ilies Belmokhtar, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Le Havre AC would like this to lead.
Market26 Feb 2029
The name of Rassoul Ndiaye keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Le Havre AC say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Jan 2029
Beaten 1‑4 by FC Annecy, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market29 Jan 2029
The phone has started ringing about Junior Mwanga again, and this time the name on the line is Pau FC. Le Havre AC are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market29 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Le Havre AC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Issa Soumaré 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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Ayumu Seko
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Daylam Meddah 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
Ayumu Seko hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Le Havre AC can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Le Havre AC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Issa Soumaré 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rassoul Ndiaye 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
1‑3 to Red Star, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch1 Jan 2029
“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 Le Havre AC, and 3 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Sala gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Dec 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Le Havre AC did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sofiane Boufal and Le Havre AC agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rassoul Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ethan Nkouka is the month’s best young player
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Le Havre AC will try not to make too much of it.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Benoît Sida 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 dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiago Gonçalves, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Something was said to Rassoul Ndiaye and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
38 days out for Sofiane Boufal after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Le Havre AC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Le Havre AC heard it as anything else.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Le Havre AC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Issa Soumaré 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Still nobody has beaten Le Havre AC
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Loan watch6 Nov 2028
“I watch every Le Havre AC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodez AF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match4 Nov 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Issa Soumaré. 1‑0 against AS Nancy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Oct 2028
68 days out for Sofiane Boufal after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Le Havre AC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Oct 2028
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Le Havre AC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Le Havre AC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Oct 2028
Rassoul Ndiaye wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Le Havre AC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Ayumu Seko 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rassoul Ndiaye 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
A 2‑0 win over ESTAC Troyes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Tiago Gonçalves
“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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.