Marked for Arnaud André
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 May 2038
The mood at Stade Rennais has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom24 May 2038
Pressure builds in the Stade Rennais boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad24 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Gonzalez
25 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.
Squad24 May 2038
Alidu Seidu 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.
Squad24 May 2038
Words at Stade Rennais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Grønbæk 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.
Market24 May 2038
Richard Dupuis has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Rennais they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Apr 2038
The mood at Stade Rennais has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad26 Apr 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Gonzalez
53 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2038
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Stade Rennais is running low.
Squad26 Apr 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stade Rennais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2038
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.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Words at Stade Rennais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Grønbæk 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2038
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market18 Jan 2038
Noham Diop has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Rennais they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Marc Joly keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stade Rennais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
Age has not caught Albert Grønbæk yet — 8.21
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market18 Jan 2038
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Words at Stade Rennais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Grønbæk 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
A performance of 9.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match16 Jan 2038
Red Star made Stade Rennais work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2037
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match30 Nov 2037
Position 17, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match28 Nov 2037
No end in sight to Stade Rennais's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stade Rennais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Hervé Robert: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Rennais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Alidu Seidu 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.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Albert Grønbæk 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.
Match28 Nov 2037
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
The chances came and went for Denzil Uchenna
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 May 2037
Alexandr Temirov damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Match18 May 2037
Every point is an argument now for Stade Rennais
Position 16 and 32 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad18 May 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Apr 2037
Alexandr Temirov damages knee ligaments — 129 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Match20 Apr 2037
Every point is an argument now for Stade Rennais
Position 16 and 32 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad20 Apr 2037
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Mar 2037
31 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Alidu Seidu 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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Noham Diop is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.39 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Words at Stade Rennais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Grønbæk 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.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
One of those days for Noham Diop
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.90, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Nov 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stade Rennais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Nov 2036
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stade Rennais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Nov 2036
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Rennais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Randal Kolo Muani 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.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
A performance of 8.92 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Successful dribbles: 8. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom17 Nov 2036
The Stade Rennais production line keeps running
121 graduates out of an academy now rated 15 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Oct 2036
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stade Rennais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Oct 2036
FC Metz will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Stade Rennais were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
A brace, and Noham Kamara takes the afternoon — 9.15
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noham Kamara provided it, and the 9.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Oct 2036
“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.
Squad20 Oct 2036
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Rennais have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad20 Oct 2036
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.