Marked for William Bianda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Feb 2027
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Stade Lavallois are no longer polite ones.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stade Lavallois may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Feb 2027
The offer from Clermont Foot for William Bianda was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market15 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Stade Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Thibaut Vargas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Stade Lavallois asked and Latina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The team sheet said everything about Julien Maggiotti
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Julien Maggiotti.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Stade Lavallois are no longer polite ones.
Match1 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for Stade Lavallois
Position 17 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Teddy Bouriaud: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Lavallois have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Julien Maggiotti makes the wrong kind of headline
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Stade Lavallois close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Thibaut Vargas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rodez AF were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thibaut Vargas 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Delaine commits to Stade Lavallois for another 2 years.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stade Lavallois are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
7.60, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Stade Lavallois had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
91% of the income goes out in wages at Stade Lavallois
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.” Raymond Fleury kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of William Bianda
“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.
In brief
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Squad
The armband comes off Sam Sanna
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The dugout
Sam Sanna knocks on the manager's door
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Eros Maddy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Mamadou Camara takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mamadou Camara provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Thibaut Vargas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mamadou Camara’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Stade Lavallois.
Squad31 Aug 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to William Bianda, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Owen Kouassi
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Mamadou Camara has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Jules Gaudin knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.