“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bourg-Peronnas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Saint-Etienne have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Cádiz for Enzo Faty was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
CJ Egan-Riley and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Iliya Gruev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Le Havre AC have kept their man, and AS Saint-Etienne go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at LOSC Lille is saying, and nobody at Stade Rennais is enjoying the guessing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stade Rennais people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Rennais can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with AS Saint-Etienne, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Maxi Oyedele is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Stade Rennais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
FC Lorient will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. AS Saint-Etienne were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The clubs have shaken hands with Stade de Reims; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Saint-Etienne have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS Saint-Etienne have done the hard part with Stade de Reims, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Iliya Gruev 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Saint-Etienne lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Saint-Etienne have lost him in all but the paperwork.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Saint-Etienne can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gabriel Grando 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.
In brief
SquadIliya Gruev falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sem Westerveld will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augustine Boakye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Patrick Roche could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutCJ Egan-Riley knocks on the manager's door
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Saint-Etienne lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Iliya Gruev 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gabriel Grando 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iliya Gruev 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.
“I watch every AS Saint-Etienne game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at RC Lens runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The new man at AS Saint-Etienne has worked with Aurélien Pelon before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Saint-Etienne know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sem Westerveld will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 AS Saint-Etienne know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iliya Gruev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AS Saint-Etienne, another week without a signature from Ben Old.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Saint-Etienne lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Saint-Etienne have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sem Westerveld will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Aboubacar Lô has agreed terms with SM Caen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Iliya Gruev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augustine Boakye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Brantlind will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.87, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $2.0M of what AS Saint-Etienne paid for Mamady Bangré is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sem Westerveld will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 25 gone
That is the business done at AS Saint-Etienne until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Grando and AS Saint-Etienne agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
João Ferreira 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
SquadIliya Gruev falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Le Puy Foot 43 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from RC Strasbourg for Sem Westerveld was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdy Lutin-Zidee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augustine Boakye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rémy David has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Marked 6.80 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tanguy Nianzou
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutAurélien Pelon back under a manager who knows him
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Igor Miladinović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AS Saint-Etienne people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Gabriel Grando 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.
AS Saint-Etienne offered $490.0K; Olympique Lyonnais said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iliya Gruev 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 easiest signature of my career.” Igor Miladinović and AS Saint-Etienne agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Saint-Etienne have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.2M of what AS Saint-Etienne paid for Eddy Sylvestre is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The offer from Sochaux for Sem Westerveld was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mathis Lainé is a AS Saint-Etienne player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toulouse FC have kept their man, and AS Saint-Etienne go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iliya Gruev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Saint-Etienne have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $9.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. LOSC Lille drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Igor Miladinović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS Saint-Etienne have done the hard part with Pau FC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Stade de Reims were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Rouen have kept their man, and AS Saint-Etienne go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iliya Gruev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Saint-Etienne have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Julien Le Cardinal 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.
Squad13 May 2030
Iliya Gruev 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.
11 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Montpellier HSC. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Saint-Etienne, and 18 appearances in 47 say he has earned the hearing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AS Saint-Etienne has been clear about where Enock Kwateng stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Stassin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The new man at AS Saint-Etienne has worked with Aurélien Pelon before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
In brief
Loan watchMelvin Zinga’s loan is measured in nothing happening
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eddy Sylvestre will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iliya Gruev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Iliya Gruev 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 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.
31 appearances at Montpellier HSC and the goals have stopped going in. AS Saint-Etienne lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lilian Brassier 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Matys Donavin 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Montpellier HSC pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
0‑4 to Amiens SC, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Lilian Brassier 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Matys Donavin 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.
Beaten 4 times, 1 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ross Stewart will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AS Saint-Etienne has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
João Ferreira 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iliya Gruev 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.
AS Saint-Etienne asked and FC Annecy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montpellier HSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lilian Brassier 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Montpellier HSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochaux have kept their man, and Montpellier HSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Saint-Etienne they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Abakar Sylla's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Saint-Etienne, and 8 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Patrick Roche after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Montpellier HSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Montpellier HSC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montpellier HSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Montpellier HSC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Charlton Athletic runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Randal Kolo Muani. 1‑0 against Amiens SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Montpellier HSC is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Montpellier HSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Lilian Brassier and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Alaa Bakir 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.
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.
Montpellier HSC interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Lilian Brassier 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Tidiane Diarrassouba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Alaa Bakir 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.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montpellier HSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Montpellier HSC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Montpellier HSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Khalil Fayad 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and Montpellier HSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Teden Mengi 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.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Randal Kolo Muani. 2‑1 against Dijon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montpellier HSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pau FC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Montpellier HSC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Sochaux for Khalil Fayad was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$7.6M was the most the club would pay and AS Saint-Etienne were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.34 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Montpellier HSC can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Théo Chennahi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Montpellier HSC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Montpellier HSC have done the hard part with Pisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and SC Aubagne Air Bel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Montpellier HSC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montpellier HSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Montpellier HSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Romaric Etonde has come up in conversations Montpellier HSC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Khalil Fayad. 2‑1 against Angers SCO, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 combined actions and 7.97. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
AS Saint-Etienne had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stade Brestois, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Paris Saint-Germain wanted more than $14.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Montpellier HSC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
Iliya Gruev 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.
AS Saint-Etienne have gone to Clermont Foot 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Montpellier HSC can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Paris 13 Atletico waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Montpellier HSC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Théo Chennahi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Montpellier HSC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with AS Saint-Etienne, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Craig Mamilo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolas Pays and Montpellier HSC agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montpellier HSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Mathis Lainé again, and this time the name on the line is Elche. Montpellier HSC are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Montpellier HSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Anatole Abang again, and this time the name on the line is Aarau. Montpellier HSC are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Théo Chennahi 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.
AS Saint-Etienne have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.