Marked for Nicolas Dubois
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Le Havre AC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Le Havre AC asked and Los Angeles Football Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$390.0K on the table at RC Lens. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Thomas Rousseau and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sota Nakamura 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to RC Lens, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 Aug 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Nicolas Vidal to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sambenedettese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tours is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Chamois Niortais, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match29 Aug 2026
Tours make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tours have 4 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
US Creteil come back empty-handed
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Tours
Daniel Boyer 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
An offer of $280.0K for Enzo Mongo
Tours have gone to FC Nantes 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Denis Pérez beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Le Havre AC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Le Havre AC have done the hard part with Tours, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at Le Havre AC is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 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 Le Havre AC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Le Havre AC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sota Nakamura 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Le Havre AC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market24 Aug 2026
Tours say no — this time
The offer from Osasuna for Daniel Charles 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Le Havre AC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tours is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Tours make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tours have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Tours
Bruno Dumont and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Toulouse FC paid $230.0K 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The town asked, and Tours paid $1.4M
Oumar Pona was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and Le Havre AC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AC Ajaccio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zakariya Aamchoune and Le Havre AC agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Le Havre AC have gone to Tours 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Thomas Rousseau 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Toulouse FC wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Estudiantes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Le Havre AC
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.