100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Andy Delort 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andy Delort trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadWords at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Ajaccio can pretend not to have heard.
Andrew Omobamidele 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.
Andy Delort 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Oumar Sidibé 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Andy Delort
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andy Delort 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.
In brief
SquadOumar Sidibé falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadCédric Avinel has become a man the manager trusts
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Andy Delort’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AC Ajaccio.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oumar Sidibé 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.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Ajaccio can pretend not to have heard.
Andy Delort 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Andy Delort decided nobody was going anywhere. Clermont Foot had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AC Ajaccio have had the benefit of it.
Jérémy Vachoux 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.
Andy Delort 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Yuliwes Bellache 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Andy Delort 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AC Ajaccio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Andy Delort 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.45 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Andy Delort 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Andy Delort had AC Ajaccio level again within 2 minutes, and Sochaux never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Benoît Costil
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Adama Soumaoro
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Andy Delort takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andy Delort provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Andy Delort’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AC Ajaccio.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oumar Sidibé 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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jean-Dominique Leca 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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Chamois Niortais, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Andy Delort 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Andy Delort 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.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AC Ajaccio and Tours in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Benoît Costil knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 41, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Andy Delort 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 41 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
14 new faces, and AC Ajaccio 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.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 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.
Jérémy Vachoux 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Hervé Le Gall from Chamois Niortais for $160.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Loïc Badiashile, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre-François Moracchini 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.
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at AC Ajaccio
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Antoine Muller is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Deschamps is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jean-Baptiste Rivière 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Laurent Henry is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thibault Campanini and AC Ajaccio agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AC Ajaccio has been clear about where Guillaume Fanucchi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Benoît Costil is 39 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
There were 8 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Andy Delort takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andy Delort provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Andy Delort 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre-François Moracchini 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.