Marked for Daniel Petit
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Apr 2036
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gioele Conte has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stade Lavallois have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Molina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Daniel Petit 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 Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
The manager makes an example of Amadou Cissé
“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.
Match5 Apr 2036
Paris FC left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Apr 2036
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Stade Lavallois have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Market7 Apr 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Stade Lavallois, another week without a signature from Francesco Molina.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Mar 2036
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Ancelin Mérieux 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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Molina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
A promise honoured for Sam Sanna
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Stade Lavallois told Sam Sanna something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
Joshua Mvouama is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market31 Mar 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
“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.
Market31 Mar 2036
The clock does Ancelin Mérieux’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Stade Lavallois could ask drops and the wages Ancelin Mérieux can ask rise.
Market31 Mar 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Manuel Mbollo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Mar 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mahmoud Marwan
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Lavallois lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Mar 2036
A 0‑3 beating by Grenoble Foot 38 was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market3 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Mar 2036
Only the photograph left for Mahdi Maghlout
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahdi Maghlout will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Lavallois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Mar 2036
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Francesco Molina 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words at Stade Lavallois training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucca Lucker 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 dugout3 Mar 2036
Daniel Petit gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
Nobody left the Stade Lavallois dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jan 2036
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 145 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Market7 Jan 2036
Mahdi Maghlout has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Lavallois they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2036
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stade Lavallois have done the hard part with SM Caen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings7 Jan 2036
Mahdi Maghlout ran the middle of the pitch — 7.14
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.14, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Manuel Mbollo 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.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and Stade Lavallois go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match5 Jan 2036
Manuel Mbollo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sochaux, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Market7 Jan 2036
Mahmoud Marwan is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stade Lavallois has been clear about where Mahmoud Marwan stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match7 Jan 2036
24 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Dec 2035
Mahmoud Marwan damages knee ligaments — 152 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
Match29 Dec 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sébastien Colin. 3‑1 against FC Villefranche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Molina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces31 Dec 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jérôme Royer has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Daniel Petit 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.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Ancelin Mérieux
“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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2035
Marked 8.27 — 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 ratings31 Dec 2035
Ninety minutes of Rafaël Baraka at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Stade Lavallois.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
102% of the income goes out in wages at Stade Lavallois
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2035
Francesco Molina 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Marwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Nov 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Nov 2035
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad12 Nov 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stade Lavallois are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Market12 Nov 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market12 Nov 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Manuel Mbollo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
Daniel Petit asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jul 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Lavallois they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market30 Jul 2035
“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 Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Daniel Petit gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Petit has just signed for Stade Lavallois, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
No thanks: Ismaël Aouad rejects the move
Stade Lavallois had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at RC Strasbourg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad30 Jul 2035
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 Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Mahmoud Marwan 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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2035
US Concarneau will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Pablo Muñoz has pre-agreed a move to Stade Lavallois, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Stade Lavallois go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jul 2035
No place for Daniel Petit in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stade Lavallois are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.