33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Annecy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
90 minutes played. Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Grenoble Foot 38 went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jean-Baptiste Martinez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Makutungu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jean-Baptiste Martinez after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and FC Annecy 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 at FC Annecy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Annecy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Annecy told Kadan Young something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ahmed Kashi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Clément Billemaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ahmed Kashi has written the date down.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
SC Bastia will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FC Annecy were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moïse Sahi Dion provided it, and the 9.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez did not need any: 8.42, 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. Carlos Ordóñez is living that version at FC Annecy, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 18 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Valentin Jacob has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Annecy have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jean-Baptiste Martinez on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Valentin Jacob has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutMarius Louër knocks on the manager's door
Calebe 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.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and FC Annecy 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattéo Veillon 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.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Moïse Sahi Dion has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
Florian Escales 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Annecy, another week without a signature from Calebe.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thomas Callens has his answer from FC Annecy; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Florian Escales 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 8.10 — 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 18-year-old at FC Annecy who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Makutungu 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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Moïse Sahi Dion to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AS Saint-Etienne, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattéo Veillon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jean-Baptiste Martinez chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Thibault Delphis may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The dugoutKadan Young knocks on the manager's door
Successful dribbles: 61. 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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ranjan Neelakandan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 18 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.
Ranjan Neelakandan 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.
5 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.
It needed Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Le Mans FC, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Annecy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 20 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Adam Yahi has come up in conversations FC Annecy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Thibault Rambaud 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Travis Patterson has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Annecy have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Makutungu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Stripfing for Ranjan Neelakandan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
FC Annecy asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
FC Annecy have made the call to Braga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jean-Baptiste Martinez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The deal with Angers SCO is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from FC Villefranche for Quentin Paris was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
FC Annecy had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
He is 20 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: Valentin Jacob. 1‑0 against ESTAC Troyes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Annecy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Le Havre AC 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Guy Noël Zohouri enough to be asked twice.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dominique Meyer 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monaco have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $22.2M — a club that wants Jordan Teze enough to be asked twice.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benoît Joly 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mathieu Perrot 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Jérôme Rousseau 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. FC Annecy will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Vincent Pajot 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 name of Quentin Paris has come up in conversations FC Annecy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Abdel Hbouch’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to FC Annecy.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Abdel Hbouch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.