The offer from Le Mans FC for Valentin Jacob 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Annecy have done the hard part with Le Puy Foot 43, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Florian Escales and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Cervera 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. US Boulogne have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriele Moncini. 1‑0 against Red Star, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Add another name to the list: Le Mans FC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Valentin Jacob. The answer from FC Annecy has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Argyris Darelas 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Annecy are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
At 33 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 deal with FC Villefranche 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.
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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Cervera 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 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 Edwin Quarshie.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Cervera 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.
Olympique de Marseille 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.
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Argyris Darelas 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.
FC Nantes will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Thimothé David has pre-agreed a move to FC Annecy, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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 dugout27 Dec 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Louis Morel to a room that had heard them before.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and AS Nancy had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and FC Annecy did not stop to explain themselves.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether FC Annecy can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FC Annecy can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobías Cervera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Mohamed Abdallah 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdoulaye Dabo. 2‑1 against Amiens SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Amiens SC were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Position 8, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Florian Escales knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
In brief
The dugoutFlorian Escales is still being punished for one mistake
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Annecy heard it as anything else.
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.
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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Louis Morel after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Valentin Jacob.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Annecy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriele Moncini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Axel Drouhin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Louis Morel after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
29 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
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.
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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Annecy 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 FC Annecy 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 Tobías Cervera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Idrissa Seydi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Cervera 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.
7.66, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. FC Annecy had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Thomas Henry
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Thomas Henry has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Annecy have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Annecy are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Illia Zabarnyi 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 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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Louis Morel chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Jarno Janssen
Position 2, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Annecy know it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Cervera 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.
Mohamed Abdallah 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Annecy know it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thibault Rambaud is on it.
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 Argyris Darelas has written the date down.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. FC Annecy would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Annecy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Abdel Hbouch 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 Argyris Darelas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Annecy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Moncini 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Louis Morel after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Annecy told Yael Trepy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nolan Ferro
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 33, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
14 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.
“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 Valentin Jacob.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Annecy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at FC Annecy until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at FC Annecy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canon Yaounde have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. FC Annecy will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Moncini 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Dabo 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: USM Khenchela will make the call about Ruben Beliandjou this week. FC Annecy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.6M has been paid because Tobías Cervera is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
Abdel Hbouch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Didier Martinez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer went to Barnsley 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.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Illia Zabarnyi wants continental football; whether FC Annecy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Abdel Hbouch 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.
US Concarneau wanted more than $240.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Angers SCO 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $255.9K — a club that wants Nicolas Mercier enough to be asked twice.
$240.0K on the table at US Concarneau. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Valentin Jacob
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Claudio Turi is living that version at FC Annecy, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Emiliano Filippis is living that version at FC Annecy, and it tends to show in the first month.
FC Annecy asked and OGC Nice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FC Annecy, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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 AS Nancy.
The chase for Idrissa Seydi ended with $3.0M changing hands and FC Rouen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 chase for Mohamed Abdallah ended with $1.1M changing hands and SC Aubagne Air Bel out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mohamed Abdallah has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris FC have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Dabo 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FC Annecy, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
$500.0K settles it between the clubs for Axel Guéguin
Montpellier HSC have accepted the money. What FC Annecy do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The chase for Nabil Homssa ended with $270.0K changing hands and Montpellier HSC out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catania have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Max-Edgar Chabot and FC Annecy agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
Olympique Lyonnais 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.
RC Strasbourg paid $9.2M and FC Annecy took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
FC Annecy have gone to FC Rouen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sebastian Pingel has just signed for FC Annecy, and for once the answer mattered.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Idrissa Seydi enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Lens have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastian Pingel and FC Annecy agree another 1 years.
He is 19, and nobody at FC Annecy signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SC Aubagne Air Bel have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hamza Koutoune is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Abdel Hbouch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Dabo 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.
“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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Stade Brestois paid $400.0K and FC Annecy took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade de Reims have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. FC Annecy will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
La Equidad have accepted the money. What FC Annecy do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stade Brestois waiting with a shirt. Nobody at FC Annecy is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
FC Annecy offered $4.4M; Stade de Reims said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The deal with Stade de Reims 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.
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 paperwork is done: Edwin Quarshie joins from Le Mans FC in a deal worth $140.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. EA Guingamp have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at FC Annecy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Quentin Paris 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. FC Annecy will try very hard not to make too much of it.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Diogo Ferreira is in the works
The dugoutQuentin Paris knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Dabo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. FC Annecy will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Ricard Artero 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Annecy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Abdel Hbouch 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Paul Venot is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Annecy. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Annecy know it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FC Annecy, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Ricard Artero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
At 22 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. FC Annecy will try not to make too much of it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kadan Young is on it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Annecy may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Abdel Hbouch 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Annecy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Annecy. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Annecy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
46 points in position 8: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Yahi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ricard Artero 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Eliezer Mayenda 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Louis Morel kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Florian Escales and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon FC Annecy had all but put away. Grenoble Foot 38 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Argyris Darelas.
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricard Artero 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.
Abdel Hbouch 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.
Everybody at FC Annecy saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Something was said to Ousseynou Seck and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thibault Rambaud is on it.
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Yahi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ricard Artero 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 Illia Zabarnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Montpellier HSC had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Something was said to Illia Zabarnyi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Eliezer Mayenda, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi 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.
At 21 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.
Eliezer Mayenda, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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 FC Annecy can pretend not to have heard.
19 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Ricard Artero 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 FC Annecy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kadan Young 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 2‑0 win over Clermont Foot, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Annecy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ricard Artero 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 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FC Annecy know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A last season at home is what Ahmed Kashi is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Something was said to Kadan Young and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 Mar 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Louis Morel to a room that had heard them before.
Ruben Beliandjou, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Zabarnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is 21 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Stade Lavallois had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eliezer Mayenda provided it, and the 9.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FC Annecy know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricard Artero 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Zabarnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
7 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.
“I watch every FC Annecy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodez AF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It needed Ricard Artero 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.
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.
Moïse Sahi Dion had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and EA Guingamp were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Annecy people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Eliezer Mayenda did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at FC Annecy until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. FC Metz moved on, Thomas Callens reports back to FC Annecy, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Ricard Artero 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
SquadIllia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CR Belouizdad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Travis Patterson did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Yahi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Annecy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Annecy have done the hard part with EA Guingamp, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Stade de Reims paid $550.0K and FC Annecy took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ricard Artero 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Eliezer Mayenda did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with FC Nantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Clément Billemaz has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
22 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and FC Annecy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 FC Annecy, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Annecy people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdoulaye Dabo scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deal with Paris Saint-Germain 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.
The chase for Ruben Beliandjou ended with $510.0K changing hands and SC Bastia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. FC Annecy will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ricard Artero is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Ricard Artero 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.
0‑1 to Rodez AF, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Drouhin 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.
The dugout28 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Louis Morel to a room that had heard them before.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Quentin Paris, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ricard Artero 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.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I watch every FC Annecy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodez AF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
15 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
1 for Abdoulaye Dabo, marked 7.80, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Annecy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Annecy can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abdel Hbouch 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 dugout30 Nov 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 0‑1 Louis Morel left the room before anybody could ask which.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
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.
“I watch every FC Annecy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rodez AF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout23 Nov 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 0‑1 Louis Morel left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at FC Annecy is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Annecy has been clear about where François Lajugie stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and FC Annecy have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Annecy. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
They sit in position 10 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FC Annecy the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
3 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Axel Drouhin commits to FC Annecy for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricard Artero 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.
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.
Three points for FC Annecy, 1‑0 the final word against SC Bastia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Moïse Sahi Dion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Ricard Artero 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 Abdoulaye Dabo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Moïse Sahi Dion has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Annecy have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
8 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.
Stade de Reims left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
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.
The dugout26 Oct 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 Louis Morel left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Argyris Darelas is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Moïse Sahi Dion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
6 goals in one match, Moïse Sahi Dion on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of FC Annecy and Stade Lavallois.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Quentin Paris is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ricard Artero 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 Abdoulaye Dabo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Annecy told Ricard Artero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
Bruno Camiletti is 37 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.
Ricard Artero 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FC Annecy has been clear about where Quentin Paris stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Louis Morel chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ricard Artero 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Moïse Sahi Dion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. FC Annecy have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 108th minute. Le Mans FC will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tony Robert 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.
EA Guingamp left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Dabo 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Adam Yahi reports back to FC Annecy with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Ricard Artero 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentin Jacob. 2‑1 against Le Mans FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Thibault Delphis 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Richard Charles 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. François Leroux 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.
FC Annecy asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Quentin Paris had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 20 gone
That is the business done at FC Annecy until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at FC Annecy is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order FC Annecy prefer.
Everyone has stopped pretending: LB Chateauroux will make the call about Adam Yahi this week. FC Annecy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $499.2K — a club that wants Bissenty Gomis enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gijón keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Argyris Darelas 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 dugout31 Aug 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Louis Morel to a room that had heard them before.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at FC Annecy training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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.
FC Annecy had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sporting CP, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
FC Annecy asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Louis Morel after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
FC Annecy offered $11.3M; Toulouse FC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $267.0K — a club that wants Dan Sinaté enough to be asked twice.
He is 19 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.
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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
FC Annecy asked and Toulouse FC 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Travis Patterson did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
FC Annecy have gone to Angers SCO with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antoine Rousseau 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. Laurent Roche 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.
FC Annecy asked and Pandurii 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 phone has started ringing about Ranjan Neelakandan again, and this time the name on the line is Rodez AF. FC Annecy are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Louis Morel after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.