Marked for Frédéric Moulin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2037
Carlo Mellino damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
Ümid Səmədov misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad23 Nov 2037
George Man still has not settled
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Akron 2 would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jul 2037
Vadim Konyukhov 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.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Stipe Modric 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.
Market13 Jul 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Akron 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jan 2037
“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 The request is on a desk at Akron 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Words at Akron 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadim Konyukhov 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 Jan 2037
Gerardo De Angelis 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
Squad3 Nov 2036
Ciro Panico 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 Nov 2036
The captaincy has been taken off Frédéric Moulin. Akron 2 will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad3 Nov 2036
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Oct 2036
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad13 Oct 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miroslav Petukhov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad13 Oct 2036
Frédéric Moulin is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Sep 2036
The manager makes an example of Frédéric Moulin
“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.
Squad29 Sep 2036
“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.
Squad29 Sep 2036
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Sep 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Frédéric Moulin commits to Akron 2 for another 2 years.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Ciro Panico 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 Sep 2036
Nobody at Akron 2 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
Squad1 Sep 2036
Ciro Panico 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 Akron 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Sep 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frédéric Moulin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad1 Sep 2036
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Aug 2036
The manager makes an example of Ioannis Samaris
“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.
Squad25 Aug 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frédéric Moulin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Aug 2036
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Akron 2 has been clear about where Miroslav Petukhov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jul 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frédéric Moulin, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Ciro Panico 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Akron 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordy Ntary Backala 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
Squad14 Jul 2036
Carlo Mellino pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Frédéric Moulin asks for a word with the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jul 2036
“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.
Squad7 Jul 2036
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 34 with 71 appearances behind him, and Akron 2 have to plan for both answers.
Squad7 Jul 2036
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jun 2036
Vlad Kalinichev 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 Jun 2036
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Frédéric Moulin keeps the shirt for now, at Akron 2's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Feb 2036
“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 Feb 2036
Ilja Levchenkov 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 Feb 2036
“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.