Marked for Anatole Abang
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
6 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Paris FC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rémy Labeau Lascary 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Antoine Guillot after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Elisha Owusu knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elisha Owusu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Arthur Piedfort has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AJ Auxerre 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Anatole Abang
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. AJ Auxerre were going nowhere until he came on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sinaly Diomandé 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every AJ Auxerre game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stade Lavallois runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rémy Labeau Lascary 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at AJ Auxerre
11 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Danny Namaso 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 AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match4 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. RC Strasbourg came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Squad5 Oct 2026
AJ Auxerre will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy graduates step up at AJ Auxerre
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sinaly Diomandé 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Clément Akpa
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christophe Arnaud has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
AJ Auxerre say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tony Mendy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left Maxima Goffi behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AJ Auxerre will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Romain Faivre’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AJ Auxerre needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Axel Tuanzebe commits to AJ Auxerre for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Axel Tuanzebe 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Donovan Léon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club America have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Théo De Percin again, and this time the name on the line is US Boulogne. AJ Auxerre are listening politely and promising nothing.