Marked for Jacques Le Goff
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Jacques Le Goff out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pau FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The deal with OGC Nice is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets24 Jul 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Pau FC
Ulises Echevarría 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pau FC told Naïme Said Mchindra something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to RC Strasbourg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Olympique Lyonnais: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Thomas Cordier
“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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Rayan Touzghar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
25 days out for Jacques Le Goff after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pau FC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pau FC have done the hard part with FC Metz, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Jean Ruiz 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 Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Pau FC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Anziani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jul 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Pau FC have made the call to FC Nantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market17 Jul 2028
A conversation is coming this week. Pau FC will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pau FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad17 Jul 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pau FC are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Pau FC board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Jacques Le Goff out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pau FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
No thanks: Otávio rejects the move
Pau FC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Paris FC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market10 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SC Aubagne Air Bel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pau FC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Jul 2028
Cheikh Fall 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 Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Jul 2028
Cheikh Fall has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pau FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Pau FC
Jean Ruiz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Stiven Canizalez arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stiven Canizalez has, at Pau FC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Julien Anziani 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.