Marked for Thomas Martin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 May 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Giugliano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 May 2030
Murilo 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 Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 May 2030
“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.
Market27 May 2030
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Boardroom27 May 2030
The numbers do not look good at Giugliano
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market27 May 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luciano Peluso signs something — a contract at Giugliano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Bouna Sarr 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match25 Aug 2029
A 3‑1 win over US Creteil, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bourg-Peronnas have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bourg-Peronnas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Bouna Sarr 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Bourg-Peronnas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Bouna Sarr 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 Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
50 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Bourg-Peronnas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad21 May 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 May 2029
Bouna Sarr 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
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bourg-Peronnas is running low.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Bouna Sarr 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
106 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.