Marked for Théodore Marie
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Aug 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Match19 Aug 2028
Stade Lavallois will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Chamois Niortais were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market21 Aug 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
$1.0M on the table at Olympique de Marseille. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chamois Niortais is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Angers SCO is saying, and nobody at Chamois Niortais is enjoying the guessing.
Match19 Aug 2028
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chamois Niortais lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Aug 2028
The offer from Clermont Foot for Théodore Marie was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Chamois Niortais have gone to Sochaux with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
$770.0K was the most the club would pay and Clermont Foot were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Sebastian Szymański 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 targets7 Aug 2028
Chamois Niortais asked and Clermont Foot said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2028
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chamois Niortais lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces31 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Chamois Niortais board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chamois Niortais is running low.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The offer went to Clermont Foot this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Louis Louis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Chamois Niortais asked and RC Strasbourg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market31 Jul 2028
Saïd Remadnia is 19, and Chamois Niortais have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chamois Niortais lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Clermont Foot had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Chamois Niortais have gone to Sochaux with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market17 Jul 2028
The offer from ES Setif for Kabangu Alex Teixeira was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Vincent Renault 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Léo Santos 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chamois Niortais can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chamois Niortais lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 Jul 2028
The bid was some way short and Chamois Niortais did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
An offer of $770.0K for Luís Hemir
Chamois Niortais have gone to Clermont Foot with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Vincent Renault 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Clermont Foot have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Kyle McAdam arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kyle McAdam has, at Chamois Niortais, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Louis 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Valenciennes pay $71.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
Vincent Renault damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Clermont Foot had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market19 Jun 2028
The offer from Monaco for Louis Louis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chamois Niortais have done the hard part with US Creteil, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chamois Niortais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
$1.2M on the table at Sochaux. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Sebastian Szymański 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The name of Enzo Faty has come up in conversations Chamois Niortais were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2028
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chamois Niortais lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Jun 2028
The bid was some way short and Chamois Niortais did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jun 2028
François Baron 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 Chamois Niortais hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Sebastian Szymański 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 targets12 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochaux have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Joaquín Tonet arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Joaquín Tonet has, at Chamois Niortais, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Louis 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
41 days out for Emmanuel Martin after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chamois Niortais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match8 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Chamois Niortais
Position 18 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match8 May 2028
Position 18 on 22 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market8 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match6 May 2028
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Chamois Niortais are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Louis Louis 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“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; Chamois Niortais are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match6 May 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chamois Niortais can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2028
58 days out for Martín Payero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chamois Niortais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.02, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Sebastian Szymański 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Louis 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Íñigo in the eights
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Martin and Chamois Niortais agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
François Baron and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Mar 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Louis 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market6 Mar 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Efrain Morales wants continental football; whether Chamois Niortais can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Kilian, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Émile Legrand will call it something else in private.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Thibault Joly makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Sebastian Szymański 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 ratings21 Feb 2028
A defender's afternoon for Léo Santos
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Santos 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Everybody at Chamois Niortais saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Marked 8.02 — 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Olivier Da Silva on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Émile Legrand
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sékou Doucouré, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Feb 2028
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match12 Feb 2028
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Nimes. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chamois Niortais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Louis Louis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Chamois Niortais asked and Olympique Lyonnais 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 terraces14 Feb 2028
At 23 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Théodore Marie at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chamois Niortais.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Musa Al-Tamari beats them one at a time
-
The dugout
No hiding place for Alimami Gory
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Feb 2028
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market7 Feb 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sochaux had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Sebastian Szymański and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Chamois Niortais will try again when the window opens; FC Metz may not be selling by then.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A move Jaider Pérez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jaider Pérez is living that version at Chamois Niortais, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louis Louis 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kabangu Alex Teixeira has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Chamois Niortais have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Jan 2028
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochaux have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
François Baron 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Émile Legrand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Chamois Niortais will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Martín Payero's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Chamois Niortais are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout31 Jan 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
Crisis
Match22 Jan 2028
Beaten 1‑4 by RC Lens, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A one-man rearguard from Louis Louis
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Jan 2028
Léo Santos has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chamois Niortais can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chamois Niortais have done the hard part with Monaco, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
10 saves: Louis Louis was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sochaux had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match8 Jan 2028
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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 Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chamois Niortais have done the hard part with Paris Saint-Germain, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Íñigo signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Íñigo and Chamois Niortais agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match1 Jan 2028
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match3 Jan 2028
7 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Dec 2027
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Théodore Marie
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Chamois Niortais will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Efrain Morales is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Louis Louis
“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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Mabrouk Rouaï slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mabrouk Rouaï is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
François Baron 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
Match30 Oct 2027
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Martín Payero 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Efrain Morales wants continental football; whether Chamois Niortais can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Marked 8.04 — 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mabrouk Rouaï, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with FC Lorient leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market30 Aug 2027
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bourg-Peronnas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Vincent Renault 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
3 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monaco have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match28 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Émile Legrand, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 dugout30 Aug 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Chamois Niortais did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market2 Aug 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 Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Aug 2027
The chase for Gaël Nsombi ended with $2.1M changing hands and US Creteil out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Chamois Niortais have gone to Bourg-Peronnas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Koffi Djidji and Chamois Niortais agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Vincent Renault 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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 dugout2 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Market31 May 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 Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
Guillaume Royer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 May 2027
33 games, 11 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Chamois Niortais now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxime Spano, and the manager let it.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Roger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
Koffi Djidji 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.
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Guillaume Royer keeps the shirt for now, at Chamois Niortais's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 May 2027
Alexandre Huet has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chamois Niortais they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Richy out for 60 days
The medical room confirms 60 days on the sidelines for Richy, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout10 May 2027
“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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes Maxime Spano a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Chamois Niortais. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad10 May 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 May 2027
Guillaume Royer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch3 May 2027
30 appearances at Eibar and the goals keep coming. Chamois Niortais are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chamois Niortais can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Enzo Loiodice has moved up it.
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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Émile Legrand knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chamois Niortais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout3 May 2027
Maxime Spano has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maxime Spano has written the date down.
Market3 May 2027
The Éder Machado story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Éder Machado signs something — a contract at Chamois Niortais or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom3 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Eibar
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Eibar is running low.
Match27 Apr 2027
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Hugo Ríos has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Eibar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match1 May 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Mirandés spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A brace, and Pape Guèye takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pape Guèye provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A goal and an assist for Jon Bautista — 7.76
Involvement in 3 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.76 beside his name.
Match1 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Eibar right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Eibar
Diego López 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Apr 2027
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Guillaume Royer 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thibault Joly and Chamois Niortais agree another 5 years.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thibault Joly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
The goals keep arriving from Théodore Marie’s exile
9 goals in 27 games at Eibar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Chamois Niortais updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sékou Doucouré, and the manager let it.
Market19 Apr 2027
The Louis Louis story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Louis Louis signs something — a contract at Chamois Niortais or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Maxime Spano has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maxime Spano has written the date down.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chamois Niortais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Adu Ares runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Eibar
Diego López and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Apr 2027
A bad afternoon for Eibar against Castellón
1‑3 to Castellón, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imanol 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 dugout19 Apr 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The plan did not have a place for Unai Elgezabal
Nobody at Eibar is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Looking ahead19 Apr 2027
Leganés next, and one man in the Eibar dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chamois Niortais is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Guillaume Royer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Koffi Djidji 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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 Chamois Niortais know it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Roger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
8 new faces, and Chamois Niortais 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Vincent Renault 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Safouane Benzahra is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Denis Blanchard has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jonathan Afolabi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Koffi Djidji knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chamois Niortais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Eibar
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Eibar
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Eibar is running low.
Squad5 Apr 2027
618 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Eibar know exactly what they have.
Market5 Apr 2027
Pape Guèye wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Eibar
Adu Ares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Martínez 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The decline has begun for Jair
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Eibar is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Match3 Apr 2027
Late, late show earns Eibar a point
Minute 94, against Granada, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zico Buurmeester, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Mar 2027
Alexandre Huet has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chamois Niortais they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Guillaume Royer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mathieu Deplagne 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
11 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Guillaume Royer 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 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samir Haribou is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout1 Mar 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The Éder Machado talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chamois Niortais know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathis Hannedouche trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Théodore Marie damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Diego López 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 Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2027
7 unbeaten for Eibar
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Eibar did not have in the autumn.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonmi Magunagoitia, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Zico Buurmeester 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Jair 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 Eibar know it.
Match27 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Eibar counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Eibar now.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Diego López beats them one at a time
-
The dugout
Jofre Torrents asks for a word with the manager
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Théodore Marie damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Javi Martínez did the work nobody counts — 6.83
15 combined actions and 6.83. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match20 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, Eibar do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Eibar
Javi Rueda 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
One of those days for Pape Guèye
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match20 Feb 2027
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chamois Niortais is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market15 Feb 2027
The offer from Sanfrecce Hiroshima for Éder Machado was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vincent Renault 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathieu Deplagne 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Chamois Niortais are still strangers to each other
10 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“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 Chamois Niortais will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Théodore Marie’s exile
7 goals in 24 games at Eibar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Chamois Niortais updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Louis Louis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Théodore Marie
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Eibar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Eibar
Javi Martínez 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 targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter Miami CF have kept their man, and Eibar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imanol 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zico Buurmeester, and the manager let it.
Match13 Feb 2027
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Eibar had all but put away. Huesca will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Eibar share the spoils with Huesca
A 1‑1 draw with Huesca leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Eibar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Feb 2027
So close: Jon Bautista’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Real Sociedad moved on, Jon Bautista reports back to Eibar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Eibar
Marnon Busch 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 ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jon Bautista. 1‑0 against Almería, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match2 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Théodore Marie’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Eibar.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
-
The dugout
Imanol gets it from the manager
-
The dugout
A promise honoured at Eibar
-
Player ratings
Jon Bautista stands above it all
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 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 Eibar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Eibar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
Athletic Bilbao pay $4.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Match23 Jan 2027
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Théodore Marie. 1‑0 against Andorra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Eibar
Diego López and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Nguyen
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Louis Louis, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Red Star, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dijon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Eibar
Javi Martínez 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Théodore Marie’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Eibar.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jon Guruzeta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lander Olaetxea 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Lander Olaetxea
“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 Dec 2026
Hugo Ríos: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Eibar
Javi Martínez 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jofre Torrents was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Deportivo La Coruña, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anaitz Arbilla, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Aleix Garrido has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Eibar 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álvaro Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Nguyen
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Chamois Niortais will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chamois Niortais know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Maxime Spano a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Chamois Niortais. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
11 appearances at Eibar and the goals keep coming. Chamois Niortais are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chamois Niortais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Sergio Álvarez yet — 8.14
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Javi Martínez 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Real Sociedad B made Eibar work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match27 Oct 2026
Eibar rescue it on 94 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Valladolid had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Eibar
Rubert Quijada 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Eibar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Eibar
Javi Martínez 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Adu Ares runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Hugo Ríos: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Eibar lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Walter Molina, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Eibar?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Albacete? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Eibar
A 0‑3 beating by Cultural Leonesa was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Eibar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Eibar
Imanol 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
400 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jofre Torrents, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Eibar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Eibar
Something was said to Théodore Marie 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
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Nguyen
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Olivier Aubert breaks a bone — 105 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Enzo Faty is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Guillaume Royer 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chamois Niortais told Enzo Loiodice something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Guillaume Royer 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Baptiste Macon, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Leandro Coronel is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.