Marked for Mathieu André
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 May 2032
George Hirst and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2032
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Valenciennes know it.
Squad17 May 2032
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illyes Bouhammed 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 dugout17 May 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Augustine Agyapong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mathieu André has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Valenciennes.
Market17 May 2032
The name of Daou Diomandé keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valenciennes say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 May 2032
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 Ahmed Bentahar is on it.
The dugout17 May 2032
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ruben Macedo Da Costa has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Nov 2031
The knee: Hugo Cointard out for 110 days
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valenciennes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Nov 2031
Valenciennes refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Laurent Nicolas: 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.” Valenciennes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Augustine Agyapong 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Valenciennes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daou Diomandé 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bilal Benkhedim, and the manager let it.
Market17 Nov 2031
Mathieu André is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Valenciennes has been clear about where Mathieu André stands, which is more than many ever get.
Looking ahead17 Nov 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against US Creteil in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jun 2031
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jun 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Valenciennes have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market16 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jordan Agblemagnon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valenciennes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valenciennes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
The offer went to FC Metz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adama Niane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
No place for Mathieu André in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valenciennes are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market16 Jun 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valenciennes, another week without a signature from Adama Niane.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
The deal with Red Star 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.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Illyes Bouhammed 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. Illyes Bouhammed has, at Valenciennes, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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 Valenciennes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
An offer of $640.0K for Ilyes Grini
Valenciennes have gone to RC Lens with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Mamadou Coulibaly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Manuel López commits to Valenciennes for another 3 years.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Adama Niane 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
He is 19, and nobody at Valenciennes signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“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
Steady
Market26 Aug 2030
“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.
Market26 Aug 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Benjamin Brantlind had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
Mathieu André: 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.” RC Strasbourg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Aug 2030
MC Alger come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and RC Strasbourg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Thiago Almada 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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Lucas Høgsberg, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Darren Bique 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.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Match24 Aug 2030
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.