Thomas Picard

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19 Aug 2029
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Marked for Thomas Picard

148 Edition

The Stade de Reims Herald

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom28 May 2029

Continental nights are coming to Stade de Reims

Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.

Squad28 May 2029

Thomas Picard damages knee ligaments — 16 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad28 May 2029

Matthis Abline is named among the best

There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Stade de Reims will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Squad28 May 2029

Words exchanged at Stade de Reims

Hákon Arnar Haraldsson 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.

Market28 May 2029

Sofian Bahloul returns a better player

33 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

Squad28 May 2029

Silas Gnaka 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.

The dugout28 May 2029

Marek Rodák has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Stade de Reims will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout28 May 2029

Adama Bojang knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adama Bojang trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market28 May 2029

Stade de Reims put Oumar Diakité up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Oumar Diakité may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

Back issues
147 Edition

The Stade de Reims Herald

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad21 May 2029

A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Picard

23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade de Reims lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market21 May 2029

Tom Ducrocq asks to leave Stade de Reims

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market21 May 2029

Ibrahim Coulibaly is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade de Reims is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad21 May 2029

A falling-out at Stade de Reims

Hákon Arnar Haraldsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad21 May 2029

Words at Stade de Reims training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shawn Adewoye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad21 May 2029

Joseph Okumu wants one last season at home

Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Stade de Reims know now that the thought has arrived.

The dugout21 May 2029

Oumar Diakité gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oumar Diakité is on it.

The dugout21 May 2029

No hiding place for Hamidou Makalou

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamidou Makalou, and the manager let it.

The dugout21 May 2029

Adama Bojang 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.

In brief

146 Edition

The Stade de Reims Herald

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad14 May 2029

Thomas Picard damages knee ligaments — 31 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market14 May 2029

Only the photograph left for Georges Gomis

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Georges Gomis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade de Reims the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market14 May 2029

Sékou Mara wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Stade de Reims hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad14 May 2029

Hákon Arnar Haraldsson 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 de Reims this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad14 May 2029

Words at Stade de Reims training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shawn Adewoye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout14 May 2029

Stade de Reims keep their word to Fabio Baldé

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

Loan watch14 May 2029

10 goals on loan for Hafiz Ibrahim

26 appearances at Bnei Yehuda and the goals keep coming. Stade de Reims are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.

The dugout14 May 2029

The manager makes an example of Théo Leoni

“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 dugout14 May 2029

Sergio Akieme has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Stade de Reims will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

145 Edition

The Stade de Reims Herald

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad7 May 2029

The knee: Thomas Picard out for 39 days

39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade de Reims lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match7 May 2029

The season ends: position 3 for Stade de Reims

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 63 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

Match7 May 2029

Stade de Reims are in among the leaders

Position 3 and 63 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Market7 May 2029

Hákon Arnar Haraldsson wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Stade de Reims hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Match5 May 2029

Stade de Reims make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Stade de Reims have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad7 May 2029

Tempers go at Stade de Reims

Sergio Akieme 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.

The terraces7 May 2029

One of their own: Fabio Baldé

He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Match5 May 2029

Stade de Reims get the job done against FC Nantes

A 1‑0 win over FC Nantes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings7 May 2029

Ninety minutes of Hákon Arnar Haraldsson at his very best

Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Stade de Reims.

In brief