“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paris FC can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Paris FC can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Coppola 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Paris FC has been clear about where Diego Coppola stands, which is more than many ever get.
Half the programme played, position 16, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Pierre Lees-Melou 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Koleosho signs something — a contract at Paris FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Maxime Lopez wants continental football; whether Paris FC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Coppola 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
“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 Paris FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kevin Trapp 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Neves wants continental football; whether Paris FC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adilson Malanda 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Paris FC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Joseph Gérard after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Pierre Lees-Melou 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 Diego Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pablo Pagis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pierre-Yves Hamel is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
45 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.
“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 Paris FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Kevin Trapp 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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adilson Malanda 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Samir Chergui
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Yoan Koré obliged against Valenciennes. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Paris FC.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bahmed Deuff did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Yoan Koré, marked 7.75, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hamari Traoré 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: 20. 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paris FC can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Paris FC heard it as anything else.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Amiens SC moved on, Alimami Gory reports back to Paris FC, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
In brief
SquadWords at Paris FC training over how hard people work
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paris FC can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Paris FC close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 18 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
$720.0K on the table at SM Caen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Paris FC ran out of time with US Boulogne. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
84 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.
“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 Paris FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Paris FC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$2.0M on the table at US Boulogne. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Jean-Philippe Krasso again, and this time the name on the line is US Concarneau. Paris FC are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.0M — a club that wants Patrick Nkoa enough to be asked twice.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Neves wants continental football; whether Paris FC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Diego Coppola 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.
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.
101 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Paris FC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Paris FC can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Luca Koleosho 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paris FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Paris FC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Jean-Philippe Krasso has come up in conversations Paris FC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rudy Matondo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paris FC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kevin Trapp and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Paris FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Coppola 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 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.
Paris FC have gone to RC Strasbourg 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.
The phone has started ringing about Yoan Koré again, and this time the name on the line is JS Saoura. Paris FC are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$12.0K was the most the club would pay and FC Lorient 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.
Hamari Traoré 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 Paris FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pierre Lees-Melou 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 Luca Koleosho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pablo Pagis is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Paris FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 goals in 20 games at Pau FC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Paris FC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Stade Briochin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albin Ekdal 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jean-Baptiste Pierre, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Ndjantou 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.
“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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jean-Baptiste Pierre chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Paris 13 Atletico 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bourg-Peronnas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A 2‑0 win over Stade Rennais, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Joseph Gérard on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pablo Pagis is on it.
Nobody at Paris FC is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albin Ekdal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jean-Baptiste Pierre to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Nobody at Paris 13 Atletico 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.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Léo Botz
At 22 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.
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.
FC Nantes next, and one man in the Paris FC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marshall Munetsi has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Clarence Kokoro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Germain Sanou 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 Quentin Ndjantou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean-Baptiste Pierre after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Cheick Traoré and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Cheick Traoré is still being punished for one mistake
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.
SM Caen next, and one man in the Paris 13 Atletico dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jean-Baptiste Pierre could afford to be generous.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Paris 13 Atletico has to find a result from somewhere.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Paris 13 Atletico is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Germain Sanou 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 Albin Ekdal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paris 13 Atletico will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Ndjantou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jean-Baptiste Pierre left the room before anybody could ask which.
FC Villefranche next, and one man in the Paris 13 Atletico dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris 13 Atletico have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albin Ekdal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noa Donat, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jean-Baptiste Pierre chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against LB Chateauroux in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Quentin Ndjantou did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Albin Ekdal 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Ndjantou 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.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sofiane Alakouch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paris 13 Atletico have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 13 Atletico this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.