Marked for Charles Mathieu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nimes have done the hard part with Stade Rennais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market19 Jun 2034
Only the photograph left for Ethan Tandu
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ethan Tandu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nimes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Tempers go at Nimes
Jeriba Gassama 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
A move Luka Kurtovic would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luka Kurtovic is living that version at Nimes, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
Nimes asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout19 Jun 2034
“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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Golden Mafwenta 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Kurtovic commits to Nimes for another 4 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Apr 2033
11 matches without a win for FC Nantes
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around FC Nantes are no longer polite ones.
Match2 Apr 2033
Chastening afternoon for FC Nantes
A 0‑3 beating by Paris Saint-Germain was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad4 Apr 2033
A one-man rearguard from Unai Marrero
There were 8 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.
Market4 Apr 2033
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Nantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Words exchanged at FC Nantes
Unai Marrero 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
A row about effort at FC Nantes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pietro Ceccaroni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Apr 2033
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Nantes, another week without a signature from Pietro Ceccaroni.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout4 Apr 2033
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Feb 2033
Successful dribbles: 49. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market21 Feb 2033
Yanel Zeze 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 Tours can pretend not to have heard.
Match19 Feb 2033
No end in sight to Tours's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tours has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Feb 2033
A falling-out at Tours
Dominique Aubry and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Feb 2033
Tours cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Rémi Hubert 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 Feb 2033
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2033
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.
Match19 Feb 2033
OGC Nice left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jan 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Jan 2033
The fee is $660.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AJ Auxerre drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2033
Everything agreed with Paris Saint-Germain, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jan 2033
Rémi Hubert 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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2033
AJ Auxerre will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Théo Dragin has pre-agreed a move to Tours, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2033
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.
Match29 Jan 2033
Stade Rennais left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
The manager makes an example of Roman Tolochko
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets24 Jan 2033
The clubs have shaken hands with AJ Auxerre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market24 Jan 2033
“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 Tours, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2033
The deal with FC Nantes 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 Jan 2033
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monaco keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Jan 2033
A falling-out at Tours
Dominique Aubry and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2033
Rémi Hubert 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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2033
Tours asked and Olympique de Marseille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Jan 2033
Clermont Foot made Tours work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match22 Jan 2033
Tours keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.