Marked for Patrick Perrot
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2038
There were 12 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.
Squad30 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Laurent Mathieu
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Nantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces30 Aug 2038
Anger at FC Nantes spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match28 Aug 2038
FC Nantes leaking at the back
8 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.67 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad30 Aug 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Nantes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Aug 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 FC Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Aug 2038
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Nantes have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match28 Aug 2038
Dehmaine Tabibou scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to RC Lens, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Laurent Mathieu
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Nantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Nantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Aug 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad16 Aug 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 FC Nantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at FC Nantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bahmed Deuff 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.
Squad16 Aug 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Klaus Camara, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Laurent Mathieu
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Nantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Dehmaine Tabibou 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.
Market9 Aug 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Nantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Words at FC Nantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johann Lepenant 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2038
Still nobody in the FC Nantes dugout
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.