Marked for Mathieu Cafaro
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 May 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Achour
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 May 2037
A fracture rules Mohamed Ba out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 May 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Paris FC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 May 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paris FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 May 2037
Maxime Lopez 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.
Market18 May 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathieu Cafaro signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Achour
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Mohamed Ba out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Apr 2037
Only the photograph left for Oleksiy Kulach
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleksiy Kulach will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paris FC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Marchetti 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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Adam Wierzbicki 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.
Market20 Apr 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathieu Cafaro signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Mar 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Achour
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Mohamed Ba out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Mar 2037
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Mathieu Cafaro, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market23 Mar 2037
Oleksiy Kulach has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paris FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Maxime Lopez 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.
Market23 Mar 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathieu Cafaro signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Mar 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Achour
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Mohamed Ba out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Feb 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Achour
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paris FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Mohamed Ba out for 106 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Feb 2037
Oleksiy Kulach has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paris FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Maxime Lopez 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Feb 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathieu Cafaro signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jan 2037
Oleksiy Kulach has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paris FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Samir Chergui 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.
Market26 Jan 2037
Add another name to the list: Bourg-Peronnas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about El Hadj Camara. The answer from Paris FC has not changed — yet.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Vincent Marchetti 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.
Squad26 Jan 2037
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Dec 2036
There were 9 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.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
Enock Asubonteng, 36, rolls back the years — 7.98
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Defences have started doubling up on Patrick Ouotro
15 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxime Lopez 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.
Match27 Dec 2036
Adam Wierzbicki scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to AS Nancy, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Thibault De Smet 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.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.32, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market29 Dec 2036
The name of Mathieu Cafaro keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Paris FC say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
5.12 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Dec 2036
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings22 Dec 2036
Mathieu Cafaro, 39, rolls back the years — 9.05
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.05 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Maxime Lopez 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.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Defences have started doubling up on Patrick Ouotro
14 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad22 Dec 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Dec 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Dec 2036
A performance of 8.52 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match20 Dec 2036
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Bourg-Peronnas tried to reorganise, Paris FC did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad22 Dec 2036
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Dec 2036
“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.
Market1 Dec 2036
Maxime Lopez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Paris FC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxime Lopez 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 ratings1 Dec 2036
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Thibault De Smet 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.
Squad1 Dec 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathys Tourraine, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Dec 2036
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vincent Marchetti will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Nov 2036
There were 9 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.
Match19 Nov 2036
The cup run ends for Paris FC
0‑2 against Paris Saint-Germain, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
Age has not caught Mathieu Cafaro yet — 9.08
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad24 Nov 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paris FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match22 Nov 2036
A 1‑0 win over Chamois Niortais, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Nov 2036
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincent Marchetti 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.
Squad24 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Nov 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad3 Nov 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samir Chergui and Paris FC agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
A defender's afternoon for Maxime Lopez
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Samir Chergui 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 Nov 2036
Vincent Marchetti 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.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Shots: 12, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market3 Nov 2036
The name of Mathieu Cafaro keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Paris FC say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.