Marked for Arthur Vitelli
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochaux this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yéli Traoré is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kapit Djoco gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Kapit Djoco
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
There were 86 minutes on the clock and AS Nancy had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Sochaux did not stop to explain themselves.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Julien Masson 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
AS Nancy made Sochaux work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Arthur Vitelli 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
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Riyan Majdi hands in a written request
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A chastening introduction for Aboubacar Sidibé — 5.70
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.70 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Julien Masson 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arthur Vitelli has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sochaux.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jonathan Mexique 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.