The Stade Rennais Courier
Squad21 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Zuleta
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Rennais lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Quentin Merlin runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Aug 2028
Stade Rennais say no — this time
The offer from Monterrey for Yassir Zabiri was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Real improvement from Victor Orakpo at Stade Rennais
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Victor Orakpo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Lilian Brassier 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 Stade Rennais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ludovic Blas 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Stade Rennais
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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Thibault Rousseau steps up from the Stade Rennais academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thibault Rousseau 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Jean Marchand steps up from the Stade Rennais academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jean Marchand 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.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Denis Da Silva joins the Stade Rennais first team
- Boardroom Stade Rennais board go back on their word
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Lilian Brassier