Marked for Didier Robert
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Mar 2027
VfL Wolfsburg will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FC Augsburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
A brace, and Didier Robert takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Didier Robert provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Didier Robert is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.27 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Arijon Ibrahimović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20
A mark of 8.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Augsburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Anton Kade runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Gabri Veiga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FC Augsburg know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Georges Mikautadze 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Gabri Veiga 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 Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.31 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georges Mikautadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Mar 2027
The goals have deserted FC Augsburg
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Augsburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Match20 Mar 2027
Union Berlin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marco Thomas after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
International break empties FC Augsburg
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout22 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, FC Augsburg do not lose
15 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Didier Robert scored in the 86th minute, Eintracht Frankfurt had already begun thinking about the journey home, and FC Augsburg took the lot.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Arijon Ibrahimović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Didier Robert is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.28 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Gabri Veiga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georges Mikautadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Mar 2027
At 21, Arijon Ibrahimović is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. FC Augsburg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match27 Feb 2027
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match27 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Didier Robert. 2‑1 against Eintracht Frankfurt, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation FC Augsburg did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A brace, and Georges Mikautadze takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georges Mikautadze provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Georges Mikautadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
14 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keven Schlotterbeck 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 dugout22 Feb 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Köln leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
27 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Gabri Veiga has to sit this one out
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Market
Didier Robert linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match6 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation FC Augsburg did not have in the autumn.
Match8 Feb 2027
FC Augsburg are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
436 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and FC Augsburg know what they have.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Didier Robert is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.29 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 FC Augsburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gabri Veiga 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Georges Mikautadze 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
FC Augsburg keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
Borussia Dortmund pay $27.4M, 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Anton Kade takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anton Kade provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match30 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation FC Augsburg did not have in the autumn.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
He is going to Borussia Dortmund, the club has $27.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad1 Feb 2027
11 seasons and 435 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Squad1 Feb 2027
20 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
FC Augsburg close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jan 2027
Bayer Leverkusen pay $4.7M, 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Köln have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Robin Fellhauer. The answer from FC Augsburg has not changed — yet.
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation FC Augsburg did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
19 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Heidenheim is saying, and nobody at FC Augsburg is enjoying the guessing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Georges Mikautadze 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Keven Schlotterbeck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Jan 2027
Three points for FC Augsburg, 2‑0 the final word against RB Leipzig in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
3‑0, and Georges Mikautadze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything FC Augsburg tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play FC Augsburg right now
4 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Didier Robert is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.23 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Gabri Veiga 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georges Mikautadze 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 terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Kade has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match12 Dec 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Georges Mikautadze in the middle of it, and St. Pauli unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FC Augsburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Werder Bremen, and it could have been more.
Squad7 Dec 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad7 Dec 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arijon Ibrahimović did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play FC Augsburg 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Gabri Veiga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Augsburg and Werder Bremen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 9.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Georges Mikautadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at FC Augsburg now.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yannik Keitel, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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 dugout30 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Nov 2026
4‑0, and Didier Robert took the headlines on an afternoon when everything FC Augsburg tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match18 Nov 2026
0‑1 against Bayern Munich, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Augsburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Gabri Veiga 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
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georges Mikautadze 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Georges Mikautadze 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Anton Kade runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Keven Schlotterbeck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
A point taken on 91 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A promise honoured for Gabri Veiga
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Augsburg told Gabri Veiga something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Heidenheim leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Marco Thomas on the draw
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Didier Robert, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arijon Ibrahimović did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market26 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether FC Augsburg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Georges Mikautadze 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristijan Jakić 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Arijon Ibrahimović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.98, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The numbers do not look good at FC Augsburg
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Georges Mikautadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kristijan Jakić 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 dugout5 Oct 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Georges Mikautadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marco Thomas kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Georges Mikautadze takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georges Mikautadze provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gabri Veiga 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at FC Augsburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georges Mikautadze 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Georges Mikautadze. 2‑0 against TSG Hoffenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Marco Thomas could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Takashi Usami dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Augsburg have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Sep 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 FC Augsburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Augsburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kristijan Jakić 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Finn Dahmen
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thomas Huber has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and FC Augsburg 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A smaller club would suit Finn Dahmen now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether FC Augsburg can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Match12 Sep 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Didier Robert goes
FC Augsburg paid $31.2M and Chamois Niortais took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Stade Brestois for Bruno David 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zaragoza had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.86 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $2.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Olympique Lyonnais drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Chamois Niortais have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$740.0K was the most the club would pay and Monaco 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bruno David 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
FC Augsburg spend $31.2M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $31.2M has been paid because Didier Robert is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $25.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Porto drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Didier Robert 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. Didier Robert is living that version at FC Augsburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market24 Aug 2026
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Georges Mikautadze arrives from Villarreal to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Union Berlin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexis Claude-Maurice 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Georges Mikautadze 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Georges Mikautadze from Villarreal for $58.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Augsburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Didier Robert, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Palermo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match15 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from AJ Auxerre for Sergio Gamberini 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Benoît Gérard has left for RC Strasbourg in a $8.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chamois Niortais have done the hard part with Olympique Lyonnais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Antoine Bernard, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Didier Robert 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
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
FC Augsburg have gone to Villarreal 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 targets17 Aug 2026
$31.2M on the table at Chamois Niortais. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Celta wanted more than $29.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jeffrey Gouweleeuw 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 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and FC Augsburg have gone and got theirs early.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at FC Augsburg that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Roger François has left for Udinese in a $22.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Didier Robert takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Didier Robert provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Altach had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Aug 2026
Vicenza come back empty-handed
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.00 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Thomas Rivière again, and this time the name on the line is Palermo. Chamois Niortais are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Didier Robert and Chamois Niortais agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno David was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Le Havre AC for Didier Robert 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Chamois Niortais have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
Roger François 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bruno David 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 Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jorthy Mokio is in the works
Chamois Niortais have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Didier Robert knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Didier Robert trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout3 Aug 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sébastien Durand after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.