Dmytro Riznyk 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sacha Lung and Olympique de Marseille agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïmen Moueffek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympique de Marseille know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympique de Marseille, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Olympique de Marseille. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Olympique de Marseille hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Olympique de Marseille told Davinson Sánchez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
7.89, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jérôme Perrin is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Angel Gomes 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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
João Félix was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Olympique de Marseille pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
28 appearances at ESTAC Troyes and the goals have stopped going in. Olympique de Marseille lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Dmytro Riznyk
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bamo Meïté will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympique de Marseille the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yann Karamoh has his answer from Olympique de Marseille; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïmen Moueffek 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Wilfried Singo wants continental football; whether Olympique de Marseille can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jacques Ekomié 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Olympique de Marseille has been clear about where Neal Maupay stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïmen Moueffek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympique de Marseille may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympique de Marseille heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathis Clément is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“I watch every Olympique de Marseille game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Rouen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Neal Maupay is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I did not go to Montpellier HSC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olympique de Marseille and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïmen Moueffek 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Olympique de Marseille will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Olympique de Marseille would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amine Gouiri’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Olympique de Marseille needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille 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 Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑2 to RC Strasbourg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
João Félix was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Olympique de Marseille will be judged on one thing only.
“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 Olympique de Marseille, and 4 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 1‑2 Laurent Lemaire left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympique de Marseille 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.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympique de Marseille heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leonardo Balerdi wants continental football; whether Olympique de Marseille can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Manuel Vicentini is living that version at Olympique de Marseille, and it tends to show in the first month.
Olympique de Marseille offered $74.0K; RC Strasbourg 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Fleury 91 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Olympique de Marseille paid $4.2M and AS Saint-Etienne took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The deal with Grenoble Foot 38 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.
AS Saint-Etienne have gone to Toulouse FC 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.
“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; AS Saint-Etienne are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
In brief
SquadMahmoud Jaber falls out with a teammate over standards
Everything agreed with ADO Den Haag, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Olympique de Marseille offered $8.5M; Hapoel Kfar Saba 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.
Olympique de Marseille have gone to Barnsley 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.
Olympique de Marseille asked and Sochaux said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Aïmen Moueffek is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aïmen Moueffek has just signed for Olympique de Marseille, and for once the answer mattered.
At 21 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebenezer Annan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Saint-Etienne the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ilan Kebbal 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.
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.
Something was said to Vincent Viot and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJoshua Duffus knocks on the manager's door
“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 AS Saint-Etienne, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Saint-Etienne they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ilan Kebbal 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 had been thinking. Maghnes Akliouche 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.
“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; AS Saint-Etienne are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS Saint-Etienne told Maghnes Akliouche something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Strahinja Stojković and AS Saint-Etienne agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I watch every AS Saint-Etienne game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Taraz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AS Saint-Etienne. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutAïmen Moueffek asks for a word with the manager
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Saint-Etienne have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AS Saint-Etienne can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ilan Kebbal 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 had been thinking. Maghnes Akliouche 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 ratings12 Apr 2027
Amine Hemia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
7 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS Saint-Etienne have done the hard part with MC Alger, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The chase for Antoine Rabillard ended with $420.0K changing hands and Le Mans FC out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. EA Guingamp have kept their man, and AS Saint-Etienne go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The goal that put Grenoble Foot 38 ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when AS Saint-Etienne equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Saint-Etienne will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne 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 João Ferreira 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; AS Saint-Etienne are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Something was said to Ilan Kebbal and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I did not go to Taraz to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Saint-Etienne and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Julien Lefèvre to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AS Saint-Etienne has been clear about where Aïmen Moueffek stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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; AS Saint-Etienne are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Something was said to Adama Niane and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AS Saint-Etienne. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Stassin signs something — a contract at AS Saint-Etienne or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
They sit in position 4 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
$26.3M on the table at Galatasaray. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$21.5M on the table at Austin FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Saint-Etienne can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 32 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Amiens SC for Gautier Larsonneur 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Saint-Etienne this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Ferreira 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Lucas Stassin
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lucas Stassin has come out of that comparison in the side, and AS Saint-Etienne have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.