Marked for Patrick Boyer
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Jan 2027
3‑0, and Mathieu Paris took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Chamois Niortais tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Patrick Boyer breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.64, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
Denis Roy 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Denis Roy 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Dec 2026
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Patrick Boyer breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Denis Roy 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yves Vasseur 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Clermont Foot, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Alexandre Giraud was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Charles Lacroix, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Hervé Dupuis takes the afternoon — 9.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hervé Dupuis provided it, and the 9.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Chamois Niortais did not have in the autumn.
Market21 Dec 2026
Yann Arnaud 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yves Vasseur 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Julien Dumas 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 terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Hervé Dupuis 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.55 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 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
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Julien Dumas 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Denis Roy 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yves Vasseur 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Julien Dumas 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
Dijon will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Chamois Niortais were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match30 Nov 2026
Position 2 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 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
Joseph Muller, 35, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match28 Nov 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Clau Mendes 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yves Vasseur 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Clau Mendes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Clau Mendes 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑1, 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
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 55. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Nov 2026
Joseph Muller had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bourg-Peronnas were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Joseph Muller yet — 9.06
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Denis Roy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Giraud 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 terraces16 Nov 2026
At 22 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.41 — 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Yves Vasseur at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chamois Niortais.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Denis Roy 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alexandre Giraud 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Sochaux, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Alexandre Giraud was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match2 Nov 2026
Position 3 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Julien Dumas 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.91, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Yann Arnaud
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yann Arnaud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chamois Niortais the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yann Arnaud has agreed terms with AC Ajaccio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Yves Vasseur 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Julien Dumas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Denis Leclerc is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yves Vasseur 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Julien Dumas 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Patrick Boyer out for 101 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chamois Niortais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Clau Mendes 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hervé Dupuis, and the manager let it.
Match10 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Nimes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chamois Niortais, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Patrick Boyer breaks a bone — 109 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Clau Mendes 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yves Vasseur 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 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Roger Jacquet
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Roger Jacquet has come out of that comparison in the side, and Chamois Niortais have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Valenciennes will be the happier side with the point.