Marked for Thomas Leclerc
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Feb 2034
The wait goes on for RC Lens
24 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces27 Feb 2034
Anger at RC Lens 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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Leclerc
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RC Lens lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Feb 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Lens this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Words at RC Lens training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malang Sarr 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.
Player ratings27 Feb 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Feb 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikhail Sukhoruchenko and RC Lens agree another 3 years.
Match25 Feb 2034
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market27 Feb 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Lens know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Feb 2034
The wait goes on for RC Lens
23 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad20 Feb 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Leclerc
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RC Lens lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 Feb 2034
RC Lens sink to position 18
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market20 Feb 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joseph François will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RC Lens the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Odsonne Édouard 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.
Squad20 Feb 2034
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mikhail Sukhoruchenko is living that version at RC Lens, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Malang Sarr 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.
Boardroom20 Feb 2034
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kian Spence has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means RC Lens have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match18 Feb 2034
No clean sheets in sight for RC Lens
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Feb 2034
No end in sight to RC Lens's wait for a win
22 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at RC Lens has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Feb 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Leclerc
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RC Lens lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Feb 2034
Nowhere to hide for RC Lens
1‑5 against Olympique Lyonnais, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 Feb 2034
“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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” RC Lens may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Feb 2034
Billy Blacker has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RC Lens they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Feb 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Lens this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Feb 2034
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between RC Lens and Olympique Lyonnais, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.