Marked for Bruno Aubert
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Roger Guillot reports back to Chamois Niortais with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match9 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The chase for Théo De Percin ended with $1.1M changing hands and AJ Auxerre out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer from Red Star for Julien 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Didier Guillot 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.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Nimes made Chamois Niortais work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.11, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bruno Aubert is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben Chilwell 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.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“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 RC Strasbourg, and 4 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Monaco made RC Strasbourg work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. RC Strasbourg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 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.
Squad14 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 9.69 — 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Didier Guillot 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.
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 terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Laurent Cousin 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
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roger Guillot. 1‑0 against Bourg-Peronnas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothée Pembélé 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 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 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Jacques Fontaine had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and AS Nancy were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 6.83 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 3‑3 draw with AS Nancy leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Chamois Niortais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RC Strasbourg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chamois Niortais told Timothée Pembélé something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
OGC Nice ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Stéphane Durand: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad21 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 Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad21 Sep 2026
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The kick that got away from Yann Bernard
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Chamois Niortais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RC Strasbourg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ben Chilwell 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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bruno Aubert is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ben Chilwell
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Monaco left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market7 Sep 2026
No fee and no drama: Thiago Ennes has signed at RC Strasbourg, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
Market7 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Abdoul Ouattara’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The spotlight tightens on Thiago Ennes
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.