Marked for Jacques Lefebvre
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Julien Vetro and Sochaux agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 May 2028
Rani Khedira 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.
Squad1 May 2028
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match14 Feb 2028
Sochaux refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
15 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Moussa Dembélé. 3‑1 against Clermont Foot, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Sochaux asked and Paris FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces14 Feb 2028
At 23 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jacques Lefebvre is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.