“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 The request is on a desk at AC Ajaccio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AC Ajaccio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
AC Ajaccio close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Roma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thibault Campanini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Gonzalo Melero has moved up it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AC Ajaccio has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jean-David Uras will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AC Ajaccio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ascoli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Simone Perilli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Farès Bahlouli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AC Ajaccio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutAlexis Busin asks for a word with the manager
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
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.
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Telli Siwe 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.
AC Ajaccio asked and FC Metz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paul Poirier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Loïc Damour, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Charles Renard to a room that had heard them before.
Ayman Kari had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Valenciennes were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Ayman Kari takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ayman Kari provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Werder Bremen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jean-David Uras reports back to AC Ajaccio with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
AC Ajaccio asked and FC Lorient said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Paris Brunner, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Simone Perilli 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farès Bahlouli 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.
Werder Bremen 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Simone Perilli 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Telli Siwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayman Kari. 1‑0 against US Creteil, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Cédric Avinel 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Charles Renard on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Tours.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcel Dumont 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farès Bahlouli 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.
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A AC Ajaccio teenager takes the young player award
Paris Brunner is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
US Creteil next, and one man in the AC Ajaccio dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. AC Ajaccio found something the first half had given no notice of, and Dijon could not hold what they had.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Paris Brunner, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.35
A mark of 9.35 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Simone Perilli 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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Paris Brunner’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AC Ajaccio.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Telli Siwe 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Paris Brunner has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Loïc Damour will call it something else in private.
Paris Brunner, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Simone Perilli 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.
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. 12 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yassine El Ouatki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.70, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ilies Belmokhtar, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Bourg-Peronnas spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farès Bahlouli 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ilies Belmokhtar, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
Simone Perilli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Telli Siwe 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.
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Charles Renard was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AC Ajaccio dressing room was either.
6 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ilies Belmokhtar, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Simone Perilli 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Émile Brun 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. François Paul is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yassine El Ouatki 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.
Simone Perilli 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Farès Bahlouli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Joan Tincres is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. AC Ajaccio will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Telli Siwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 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 words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joan Tincres did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thibault Campanini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AC Ajaccio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Banfa Diakité will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at AC Ajaccio escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Joan Tincres, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yassine El Ouatki is living that version at AC Ajaccio, and it tends to show in the first month.
Simone Perilli 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thibault Campanini and AC Ajaccio agree another 3 years.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. François Nguyen 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.
33 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joan Tincres did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Simone Perilli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Telli Siwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Clermont Foot had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Joan Tincres
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Joan Tincres has come out of that comparison in the side, and AC Ajaccio have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AC Ajaccio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑7 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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between AC Ajaccio and Tours, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thibault Campanini 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Charles Renard after 0‑7, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paris Brunner did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aboubakar Diaby is living that version at AC Ajaccio, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayman Kari. 2‑1 against US Creteil, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farès Bahlouli 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.
Simone Perilli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayman Kari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Julien 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antoine Pérez 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.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
17 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AC Ajaccio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
AC Ajaccio close the window on a squad of their own making
31 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bourg-Peronnas moved on, Jean-David Uras reports back to AC Ajaccio, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Simone Perilli 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ayman Kari 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.
AC Ajaccio asked and Lugano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
0‑4 to Red Star, 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.
The offer went to Arouca this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“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.
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: 21. 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 name of Jean-David Uras has come up in conversations AC Ajaccio were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Farès Bahlouli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A brace, and Paris Brunner takes the afternoon — 7.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Paris Brunner provided it, and the 7.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
AC Ajaccio asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. AC Ajaccio have paid $1.5M for Telli Siwe, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Paris Brunner scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Bourg-Peronnas, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Telli Siwe 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Simone Perilli 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AC Ajaccio are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Charles Renard on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Bonelli is living that version at AC Ajaccio, and it tends to show in the first month.
$1.5M on the table at AJ Auxerre. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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: 21. 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
AC Ajaccio spend $2.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.3M for Paris Brunner, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
He is 20, and nobody at AC Ajaccio signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yann Rémy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
$470.0K was the most the club would pay and Paris FC were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Charles Renard left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Raised voices on the training ground at AC Ajaccio
It involved Nicolas Sibade, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.