Marked for Alexandre Coeff
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Anger at US Creteil spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match26 Dec 2026
8 matches without a win for US Creteil
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around US Creteil are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yann Lienard is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
US Creteil are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
164% of the income goes out in wages at US Creteil
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.
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Stade Lavallois, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Romain Montiel, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
14 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Nov 2026
1‑4 to Tours, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ahmad Ngouyamsa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
US Creteil are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Coeff, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout16 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by François Bertrand to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to US Creteil's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at US Creteil has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Oct 2026
US Creteil are in real trouble now
Position 13, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad26 Oct 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 US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Dijon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.47, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and US Creteil are still learning each other
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.
The dugout26 Oct 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by François Bertrand to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑7 against Chamois Niortais, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for US Creteil
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between US Creteil and Chamois Niortais, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Coeff, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michel Leroux 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for US Creteil
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around US Creteil are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alexandre Coeff and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
US Creteil asked and Eintracht Frankfurt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
US Creteil caught on 95 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Valenciennes scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and US Creteil are still learning each other
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrien Louveau, and the manager let it.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sofiane Bachiri
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Aug 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 US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for US Creteil
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.32 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, US Creteil had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Yan Marillat
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Tours, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alexandre Coeff 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Southampton have kept their man, and US Creteil go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zakaria Belkouche, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the US Creteil dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Tommy Iva runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑4 against AS Nancy, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Monaco, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexandre Coeff and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paul Roux 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joseph Dubois 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Théodore Leclerc 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dominique Clément 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation US Creteil are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.