Marked for Daniel Arnaud
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Mar 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Paris FC scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ilan Kebbal 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Paris FC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moses Simon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Mar 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johannes Eggestein. 2‑1 against Stade Rennais, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Moses Simon is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad27 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and Paris FC 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Daniel Arnaud
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Lassine Sinayoko dropped after a run of poor form
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The dugout
Nhoa Sangui gets picked when it counts
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Paris FC
Ilan Kebbal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Moses Simon 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johannes Eggestein. 1‑0 against AJ Auxerre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
The afternoon belonged to Moses Simon
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Paris FC are still strangers to each other
5 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 dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Paris, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stéphane Lacroix, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Nhoa Sangui gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nhoa Sangui is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pierre Lees-Melou
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ylan El Hadary has agreed terms with Toulouse FC for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Ilan Kebbal 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johannes Eggestein 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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Paris FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Jan 2028
0‑1 to Angers SCO, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Jan 2028
Costinha told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Costinha has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Paris FC.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stéphane Lacroix after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Dec 2027
Pierre Lees-Melou damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Daniel Arnaud: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Paris FC's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Paris FC has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Paris FC
Ilan Kebbal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Johannes Eggestein 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
3 matches without a goal for Paris FC
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Kevin Trapp 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
OGC Nice left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paris FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market13 Dec 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Paris FC heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Moses Simon 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Looking ahead13 Dec 2027
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Paris FC will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Match13 Dec 2027
Paris FC at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 3, 36 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout13 Dec 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
Squad6 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pierre Lees-Melou
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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 Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Moses Simon 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
2‑3 to RC Strasbourg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Mohamed Sylla
“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.
Looking ahead6 Dec 2027
Top-of-the-table clash for Paris FC
Paris Saint-Germain next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stéphane Lacroix after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paris FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match13 Nov 2027
Nobody wants to play Paris FC 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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 Nov 2027
Moses Simon 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 terraces15 Nov 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match13 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Johannes Eggestein’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Paris FC.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Age has not caught Hamari Traoré yet — 7.95
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Paris FC
Ilan Kebbal 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moses Simon 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 ratings25 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Moses Simon at his very best
Marked 8.53. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Paris FC.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Patrick Paris
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stéphane Lacroix, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout25 Oct 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
Upbeat
Match9 Oct 2027
Paris FC cannot stop winning
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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 Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Moses Simon 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over RC Lens, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Ilan Kebbal at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Paris FC.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Maxime Lopez'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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stéphane Lacroix, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Daniel Arnaud 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diego Coppola signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
The step up is real for Nhoa Sangui
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Paris FC
Diego Coppola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johannes Eggestein 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Rémy Riou has left for AJ Auxerre in a $130.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Moustapha Mbow has improved at 27, 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Paris FC bank $766.7K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Tuomas Ollila is somebody else's player now, and $766.7K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
Market16 Aug 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diego Coppola signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead16 Aug 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Olympique de Marseille in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paris FC, another week without a signature from Daniel Arnaud.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Paris FC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Coppola is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Paris FC
Ilan Kebbal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market9 Aug 2027
Business is business: Lionel Ekoule goes
Bourg-Peronnas paid $300.0K and Paris FC took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Moses Simon 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 dugout9 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Paris FC bring in an old head
Daniel Arnaud is 34 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maxime Lopez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Roda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$12.0M on the table at Portsmouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Daniel Arnaud has gone, the accounts have $380.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Tours have gone to Stade Brestois 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Business is business: Daniel Arnaud goes
Paris FC paid $380.0K and Tours took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom9 Aug 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets9 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tours may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Tours
Daniel Carré 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tours
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Cousin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Tours
Position 4, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nicolas Collet has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tours 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Robert Leroy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2026
Tours bow out of the cup
Olympique Lyonnais go through and Tours go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tours they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Tours
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Tours are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marc Marty 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Tours
Daniel Carré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Chamois Niortais, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch21 Sep 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 Tours, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robert Leroy after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Tours did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Tours 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Laurent Michel 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
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Robert Leroy on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Arnaud
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.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Tours
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Chamois Niortais.
Match12 Sep 2026
Tours draw a blank against Nimes
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Nimes defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.