Marked for Assane Dioussé
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bourg-Peronnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market16 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bourg-Peronnas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The deal with AS Nancy is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with AJ Auxerre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bourg-Peronnas have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Boumaaoui is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Rayan Souici and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Supporters organise against the Bourg-Peronnas board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bourg-Peronnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Andy Pembélé beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market9 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bourg-Peronnas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade Rennais is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rayan Souici and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: AC Ajaccio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elhadj Keita. The answer from Bourg-Peronnas has not changed — yet.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Assane Dioussé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
FC Nantes come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AJ Auxerre did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jul 2027
Bourg-Peronnas pay $3.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The offer went to Sochaux this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Josué Casimir and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Robin Risser 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 AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
AJ Auxerre offered $110.0K; AS Nancy 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Clément Akpa, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Anger at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
28 days out for Roman Laspalles after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bourg-Peronnas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Paris FC have accepted the money. What Bourg-Peronnas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The paperwork begins on Ilane Touré
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with Monaco, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market12 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Jean-David Uras joins from AC Ajaccio in a deal worth $240.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Bourg-Peronnas spend $3.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.0M for Assane Dioussé, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market28 Jun 2027
Paris FC paid $1.1M and AJ Auxerre took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 20 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Robin Risser 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
AJ Auxerre asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danny Namaso, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
Oussama El Azzouzi damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AJ Auxerre people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Paul Nardi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marius Courcoul is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Robin Risser and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Axel Tuanzebe 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.
Match22 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for AJ Auxerre
Position 16 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Romain Faivre 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Feb 2027
3 matches without a goal for AJ Auxerre
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match20 Feb 2027
Olympique de Marseille left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Robin Risser
There were 13 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by RC Strasbourg, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match25 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for AJ Auxerre
Position 16 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre
5 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.
Market25 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AJ Auxerre have done the hard part with Le Havre AC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Robin Risser and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑3 against Toulouse FC, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Robin Risser
There were 6 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Romain Faivre 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Kalifa Coulibaly, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nobody left the AJ Auxerre 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AJ Auxerre told Robin Risser something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match10 Oct 2026
0‑3 to Paris Saint-Germain, 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Romain Faivre 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 Oct 2026
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kévin Danois 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.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Pierre Robin to a room that had heard them before.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo González commits to AJ Auxerre for another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Donovan Léon
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
Le Havre AC go through and AJ Auxerre go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for AJ Auxerre
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Angers SCO kept coming because nothing stopped them, and AJ Auxerre will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Romain Faivre scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Angers SCO, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.
Match16 Sep 2026
A point taken on 118 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
In brief
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Player ratings
Bryan Okoh fails from the spot
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
A smaller club would suit Robin Risser now