Fabio Daprelà 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.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Felipe Borges 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.
“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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Stade Nyonnais. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fabio Daprelà and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Stade Nyonnais spend $2.6M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.6M for Jérémy Guillemenot, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Burak Alili 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 new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stade Nyonnais will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Felipe Borges 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.
28 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stade Nyonnais will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Stade Nyonnais had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Fabio Daprelà 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Stade Nyonnais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Perchaud 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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Stade Nyonnais enter the window
Léo Seydoux 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Burak Alili 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 new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Stade Nyonnais. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Fabio Daprelà
SquadRamon Guzzo is training like a man with a point to make
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
Nobody at Stade Nyonnais 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.
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 Mirco Mazzeo has written the date down.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Vaduz the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Stade Nyonnais will enjoy reviewing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 2‑4 Ricardo Xhaka left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Perchaud 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Fabio Daprelà
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Nyonnais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Burak Alili 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 new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Nobody at Stade Nyonnais 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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Stade Nyonnais the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Léo Seydoux 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Burak Alili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ricardo Xhaka after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
1 for Marquinhos Cipriano, marked 7.75, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Fabio Daprelà 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Burak Alili 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 new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Position 2, 14 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.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Words at Stade Nyonnais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Borges 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.
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.
The new man at Stade Nyonnais has worked with Mirco Mazzeo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Stade Lausanne-Ouchy. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Ramon Guzzo 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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ricardo Xhaka could afford to be generous.
Fabio Daprelà 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zulte Waregem have kept their man, and Stade Nyonnais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felipe Borges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonathan Fontana has, at Stade Nyonnais, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Momodou Jaiteh is a Stade Nyonnais player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Leorat Bega has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Xherdan Fassnacht has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.