Marked for Philippe David
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Philippe David
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Sep 2027
Paris FC march on in the cup
FC Metz are out and Paris FC go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match15 Sep 2027
Ylan El Hadary wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Ylan El Hadary found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and FC Metz went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Luca Koleosho takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Koleosho provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Julien Dacosta: 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.” Paris FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Ciro Immobile, 37, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anhá Candé is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 3‑2 win over Stade Brestois, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Philippe David damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Coppola is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luca Koleosho commits to Paris FC for another 5 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Diego Coppola 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Ilan Kebbal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Philippe David
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A move Julien Dacosta 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. Julien Dacosta is living that version at Paris FC, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Luca Koleosho is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market6 Sep 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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 Paris FC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match4 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market6 Sep 2027
The name of Obed Nkambadio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Paris FC say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Marked 5.62, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.