Marked for Donovan Léon
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Stade Rennais, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Sep 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bournemouth have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Labeau Lascary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Laurent Blanc to a room that had heard them before.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AJ Auxerre are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Jamal Gonzaga has left for RC Strasbourg in a $3.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Josué Casimir commits to AJ Auxerre for another 4 years.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Aug 2026
The goal that put Stade Brestois ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when AJ Auxerre equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AJ Auxerre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Labeau Lascary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.93 on the card, and the AJ Auxerre support went home talking about one name.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Telli Siwe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match22 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Laurent Blanc after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
AJ Auxerre asked and Persib said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AJ Auxerre have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Romeo Vermant is in the works
AJ Auxerre have made the call to Club Brugge. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Mouscron have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.