20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 130 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 ratings25 Aug 2036
A brace, and Jacques Siwe takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jacques Siwe provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
FC Annecy offered $2.5M; Olympique de Marseille 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.
FC Annecy have gone to LOSC Lille 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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 The request is on a desk at FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
FC Annecy asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jun 2036
Diogo Sousa 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.
A loan enquiry to AS Saint-Etienne: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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 Ionut Burca is on it.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Annecy 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.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 May 2036
Diogo Sousa 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Nobody at FC Annecy 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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee FC Annecy could ask drops and the wages Nurbol Tymoshchuk can ask rise.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Annecy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Annecy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 FC Annecy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
32 appearances away from home and 14 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad5 May 2036
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Coquard 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.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Annecy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 goals in 30 games at SC Aubagne Air Bel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at FC Annecy updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
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 Yoann Chauvin 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 FC Annecy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
23 appearances at USL Dunkerque and the goals have stopped going in. FC Annecy lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Annecy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 FC Annecy 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 Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Annecy has been clear about where Sébastien Colin stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7.85, 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.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Sousa 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.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vincent Edafe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.44 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Jacques Siwe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of FC Annecy and US Boulogne.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against US Boulogne. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Diogo Sousa 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.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
AS Saint-Etienne have accepted the money. What FC Annecy do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether FC Annecy can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Sousa 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
FC Annecy asked and LOSC Lille 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. FC Annecy will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Olympique Lyonnais; FC Annecy go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joel Kitenge has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Ionut Burca has come up in conversations FC Annecy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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 Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yoann Chauvin wants continental football; whether FC Annecy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Diogo Sousa 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.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Elijah Ly 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He is 20, and nobody at FC Annecy signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Nobody at FC Annecy 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy 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 FC Annecy 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 Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Annecy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against USL Dunkerque in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutPierre Thomas asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutMarvin Illary has become a man the manager trusts
MarketThe clock does Nando Verdoni’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Nicolazzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Annecy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lautaro Nicolazzi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy 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 Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Lorient have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Annecy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 29 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Nicolazzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo Houngbo Civier has, at FC Annecy, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
FC Annecy have gone to LOSC Lille 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.
FC Annecy had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at RC Lens, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy 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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Diogo Sousa 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. FC Lorient have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Henry will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at FC Annecy 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Ly 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.
Nobody at FC Annecy 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.
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Annecy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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: 21. 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.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Elijah Ly 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.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Annecy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Henry will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Elijah Ly 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Annecy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Elijah Ly 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Toulouse FC scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
FC Annecy asked and AS Saint-Etienne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
5 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.
FC Villefranche will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FC Annecy were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Ly 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcel Jacquet on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abderrezzek Saidi has his answer from FC Annecy; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Stade Rennais will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. François David has pre-agreed a move to FC Annecy, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Ly 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.
“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.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marcel Jacquet kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
Match9 Dec 2034
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for FC Annecy. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jacques Siwe. 1‑0 against Dijon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Diogo Sousa 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.
AJ Auxerre next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Position 1, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad11 Dec 2034
8 new faces, and FC Annecy are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Sousa 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Annecy are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against RC Strasbourg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy 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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nando Verdoni has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
USL Dunkerque made FC Annecy work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Dino Matić 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcel Jacquet on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
7.52, 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.
Ranjan Neelakandan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Ly 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.
“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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.