Marked for Matthieu Udol
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at RC Lens
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at RC Lens is running low.
Squad24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market24 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Lens is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match6 Mar 2027
No end in sight to RC Lens's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at RC Lens has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Lens this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthieu Udol, and the manager let it.
Match6 Mar 2027
Monaco left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonathan Gradit trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Nov 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 RC Lens this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
RC Strasbourg left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthieu Udol, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. RC Lens lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Angelo Fulgini’s exile
6 goals in 15 games at Al-Taawoun — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at RC Lens updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 35 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RC Lens heard it as anything else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Samson Baidoo
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Amadou Haïdara 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.
Squad9 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 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 RC Lens this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
129% of the income goes out in wages at RC Lens
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yad Lochereau, and the manager let it.
Market5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Samuel Dié to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AJ Auxerre, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Amadou Haïdara. RC Lens will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 5.20, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Odsonne Édouard 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 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Matthieu Udol
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.67 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.