Marked for Jacques Berger
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Apr 2028
Arnaud Bodart 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 Toulouse FC can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Toulouse FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
The goals keep arriving from Moussa Dembélé’s exile
15 goals in 14 games at Sochaux — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Toulouse FC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Hidalgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Frank Magri beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Apr 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 Toulouse FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Denis Benoit chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead10 Apr 2028
A test against the best for Toulouse FC
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Paris Saint-Germain.
Match8 Apr 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. RC Strasbourg defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Feb 2028
Still nobody has beaten Toulouse FC
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Toulouse FC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Feb 2028
Julián Vignolo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Toulouse FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rasmus Nicolaisen, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
The clock did what Le Havre AC would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Santiago Hidalgo 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Nicolas Wasbauer 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
Steady
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Ismail Diallo: 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.” Toulouse FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Charlie Cresswell 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Toulouse FC
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market23 Aug 2027
Naïme Said Mchindra has left for AS Nancy in a $130.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
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.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. François Renard 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hervé Pons 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.