Marked for Mathieu Peybernes
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Samy Baghdadi out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sochaux will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sochaux have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Mar 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochaux they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Sochaux
Dylan Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Sochaux
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Louicius Deedson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
Dylan Tavares knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Tavares trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Feb 2031
48 days out for Samy Baghdadi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sochaux will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Feb 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sochaux people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympique de Marseille keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market10 Feb 2031
“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.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
Grégory Hoareau: 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.” Sochaux have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Feb 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathieu Peybernes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sochaux the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Sochaux
Dylan Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
The window shuts on the Ryan Bakayoko deal
Sochaux ran out of time with Clermont Foot. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sochaux may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OGC Nice keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market1 Jul 2030
“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 Sochaux, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jul 2030
Only the photograph left for Raphaël Michel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raphaël Michel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sochaux the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Sochaux
Julien Masson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jul 2030
The step up is real for Adama Cissé
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aymeris Ligeon and Sochaux agree another 3 years.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Mathieu Peybernes 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.