Marked for Alexandre Pierre
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Toulouse FC pay $480.0K, 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 targets26 Jul 2027
Sochaux asked and OGC Nice 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Boubacar Fofana
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Noa Kotto Kotto Mouyema again, and this time the name on the line is Novara. Sochaux are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Sochaux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elie N'Gatta 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Boubacar Fofana signs something — a contract at Sochaux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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 Jonathan Mexique has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 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 targets26 Jul 2027
Toulouse FC and Pau FC have settled on $230.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with SC Bastia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market26 Jul 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mitchel Bakker wants continental football; whether Toulouse FC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market26 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Alexandre Pierre joins from Sochaux in a deal worth $480.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Aron Dønnum 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 Toulouse FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$51.0K was the most the club would pay and Paris FC 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Toulouse FC 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sochaux may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The deal with Brentford 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Lens have kept their man, and Sochaux go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sochaux, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market19 Jul 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Toulouse FC will make the call about Alexandre Pierre this week. Sochaux have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Sochaux training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Honoré Bayanginisa 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The Julien Vetro story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Julien Vetro signs something — a contract at Sochaux or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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 Arthur Vitelli has written the date down.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Benjamin Gomel asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The caretaker keeps it: François Jacquet confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Sochaux; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$790.0K was the most the club would pay and EA Guingamp 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mitchel Bakker 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The offer went to Paris FC 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djibril Sidibé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Toulouse FC
8 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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Charlie Cresswell has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Toulouse FC are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market5 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathías Cubero commits to Sochaux for another 2 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sochaux know it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Sochaux go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Samy Baghdadi comes back from a loan that worked
25 appearances and 7 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sochaux
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elie N'Gatta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Cremonese: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Udinese have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 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 Sochaux can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 May 2027
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Sochaux
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elie N'Gatta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch24 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Samy Baghdadi’s exile
7 goals in 25 games at Sochaux — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sochaux updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad24 May 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Sochaux will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout24 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sochaux. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout24 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Monthieu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager plants his flag on Dylan Tavares
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Dylan Tavares’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad24 May 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2026
Sochaux out of the cup
Grenoble Foot 38 ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match19 Sep 2026
Mehdi Jeannin had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and FC Rouen were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pape Cabral is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match19 Sep 2026
2‑3 to FC Rouen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexandre Bourgeois after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sochaux will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kapit Djoco named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Kapit Djoco has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Victor Monthieu
“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.