Marked for Mathieu Morin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.86, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Legrand 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Émile Martin 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 terraces26 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Mathieu Morin
“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.
Loan watch26 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 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Chamois Niortais game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lavallois runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.68 on the card, and the Chamois Niortais support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Jacques Arnaud has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. AS Nancy came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Théodore Meyer
Nobody at Chamois Niortais is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
OGC Nice are out and Chamois Niortais go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chamois Niortais and Tours in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match19 Sep 2026
Denis Rémy scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Tours, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Christophe Boyer 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jacques Arnaud 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Leroy Abanda 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.61 — 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.