The AJ Auxerre Sentinel
Squad13 Aug 2029
The knee: Eros Maddy out for 107 days
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad13 Aug 2029
100 days out for Donovan Léon after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Aug 2029
Josué Casimir wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AJ Auxerre hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market13 Aug 2029
Arthur Piedfort wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Clément Akpa 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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Nimes tell AJ Auxerre: Teddy Bouriaud is not for sale
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A falling-out at AJ Auxerre
Jamal Thiaré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market13 Aug 2029
Patrick Duval steps up from the AJ Auxerre academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrick Duval has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market13 Aug 2029
One of our own: Richard Bonnet joins the AJ Auxerre first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Richard Bonnet is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- The dugout Elisha Owusu gets it from the manager
- The dugout Eros Maddy gets picked when it counts
- The dugout Arthur Piedfort asks for a word with the manager