Marked for Raymond Fournier
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Irving Martínez: 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.” Chamois Niortais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Olivier Brun 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match2 Sep 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Christophe Carré 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Óscar Contreras is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jul 2028
Aymeris Ligeon damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Christophe Carré out for 89 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Frédéric Michel 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antoine Pérez is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Christophe Carré out for 103 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jun 2028
The name of Raymond Fleury has come up in conversations Chamois Niortais were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Frédéric Michel 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A move Victor Monthieu 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. Victor Monthieu is living that version at Chamois Niortais, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 May 2028
Harry Moran 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun 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.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Djibril Ouziad, and the manager let it.
Market22 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Denis Simon’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2028
Frédéric Michel 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Girard
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Apr 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Frédéric Michel 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
Uneasy
Match19 Feb 2028
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Chamois Niortais are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Raymond Fournier damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match21 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Chamois Niortais
Position 18 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.09, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Raymond Fleury 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chamois Niortais know it.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Chamois Niortais are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.67 for the rest of it.
Market14 Feb 2028
Francis Hurl hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Feb 2028
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2028
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Chamois Niortais are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Raymond Fournier damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by FC Metz, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market7 Feb 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Olivier Brun 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Romano Andreoli
“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
Crisis
Match29 Jan 2028
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Raymond Fournier damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market31 Jan 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Frédéric Michel 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Simon, and the manager let it.
Match29 Jan 2028
0‑1 to Le Havre AC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Everybody has an opinion about Frédéric Michel
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market31 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Denis Simon’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
17 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Jan 2028
Position 18, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match19 Jan 2028
Paris Saint-Germain go through and Chamois Niortais go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A brace, and Jean-Baptiste Paris takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jean-Baptiste Paris provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Chamois Niortais did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Jan 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Frédéric Michel 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chamois Niortais and Olympique de Marseille in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match15 Jan 2028
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Ortega, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Raymond Fournier damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Paris Saint-Germain, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market10 Jan 2028
Business is business: Rémi Lopez goes
OGC Nice paid $16.4M 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
William Bénard: 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.” Chamois Niortais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces10 Jan 2028
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Rémi Lopez was one of the reasons people came, and $16.4M does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A first appearance Marvine Kamagate will want to forget — 5.40
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.40, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Jan 2028
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Raymond Fournier damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Rémi Lopez runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Idris Bounaas: 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.” Chamois Niortais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Rémi Lopez again, and this time the name on the line is OGC Nice. Chamois Niortais are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Hugo Kissanga gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hugo Kissanga has just signed for Chamois Niortais, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kenny Assignon has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Chamois Niortais have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Raymond Fleury 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
Uneasy
Match25 Dec 2027
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Dec 2027
Position 18, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Nobody could get near Rémi Lopez
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Dec 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Raymond Fleury, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Frédéric Michel 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 Dec 2027
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chamois Niortais are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Dec 2027
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market20 Dec 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chamois Niortais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Dec 2027
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match18 Dec 2027
1‑2 to Tours, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Olivier Brun 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marked 8.40 — 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
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Dec 2027
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match11 Dec 2027
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Monaco the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Chamois Niortais will enjoy reviewing.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Frédéric Michel 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
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
One of those days for Rémi Lopez
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match11 Dec 2027
3‑3, 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
Crisis
Squad6 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Dec 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Rémi Lopez runs at them all day
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.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Raymond Fleury 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Denis Simon
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match4 Dec 2027
0‑2 to FC Nantes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Olivier Brun 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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
4.33 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Raymond Fournier
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chamois Niortais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Nov 2027
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match29 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Chamois Niortais
Position 17 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match27 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Chamois Niortais's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chamois Niortais has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Romano Andreoli pops up at the right end — 7.87
7.87, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Frédéric Michel 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Théo Ramousse is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Rémi Lopez runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match13 Nov 2027
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market15 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chamois Niortais can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Rémi Lopez runs at them all day
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.
Squad15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Brun is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad15 Nov 2027
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
The spotlight tightens on Denis Simon
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.
Match13 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Paris FC? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Oct 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 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Nobody could get near Rémi Lopez
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jean-Baptiste Paris and Chamois Niortais agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 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
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chamois Niortais is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Émile Perrin damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Dec 2026
35 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Rémi Lopez runs at them all day
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A move Felipe Preis 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. Felipe Preis is living that version at Chamois Niortais, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Frédéric Michel 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.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Tours left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Fournier 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 watch21 Dec 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 19 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Rémi Lopez
8 goals and a season average of 7.42 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean-Baptiste Paris, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Fournier 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 watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to NEC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Chamois Niortais and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Market9 Nov 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Chamois Niortais have gone and got theirs early.