AJ Auxerre U20

24 Oct 2030
Thursday
Process
221 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

Keba Sylla says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against Paris FC

0‑1 to Paris FC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

200 appearances for Axel Tuanzebe

200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Toby Vertonghen: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

Back issues
220 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for AJ Auxerre

1‑4 against Paris Saint-Germain, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

9 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre leaking at the back

9 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

Squad

7 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Josué Casimir

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Donovan Léon gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

In brief

219 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for AJ Auxerre

1‑4 against RC Lens, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for AJ Auxerre

8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Squad

100 appearances for Tony Mendy

100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Boardroom

Inquest at AJ Auxerre

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

The dugout

Toby Vertonghen answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Squad

Emrick Bombo Zengo named in the team of the month

A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emrick Bombo Zengo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

In brief

218 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

7 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for AJ Auxerre

7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against RC Strasbourg

1‑2 to RC Strasbourg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Danny Namaso was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.08. 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.

The dugout

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 Toby Vertonghen to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

When it matters, Donovan Léon plays

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Josué Casimir

Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

217 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

15 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

The small margins put AJ Auxerre out

Out, 0‑3 to RC Strasbourg, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

The terraces

A cup embarrassment at RC Strasbourg follows AJ Auxerre home

0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

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.

Match

AJ Auxerre leaking at the back

6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

Squad

Omer Taygun is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Tony Mendy in the eights

A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

216 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre hand the job to Toby Vertonghen

“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Real improvement from Emrick Bombo Zengo at AJ Auxerre

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emrick Bombo Zengo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Donovan Léon

“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.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for AJ Auxerre

4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against Stade Rennais

1‑2 to Stade Rennais, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

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 1‑2 Toby Vertonghen left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

215 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Donovan Léon stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Donovan Léon and AJ Auxerre agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

The step up is real for Andy Mboyo

At 21 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.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Salah-Dine El Mezouari deal

AJ Auxerre ran out of time with FC Lorient. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Match

Toulouse FC take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Sinaly Diomandé 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 dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Interim Coach faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

214 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Salah-Dine El Mezouari

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AJ Auxerre have done the hard part with FC Lorient, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Player ratings

Axel Tuanzebe pops up at the right end — 7.37

7.37, 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.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 16 in, 18 out at AJ Auxerre

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Nordan Mukiele

AJ Auxerre asked and Chamois Niortais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Squad

Donovan Léon signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Donovan Léon and AJ Auxerre agree another 2 years.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from Kenzo Cotten at AJ Auxerre

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kenzo Cotten is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

In brief

213 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

A hiding for AJ Auxerre

Beaten 1‑5 by FC Lorient, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Louis Mezerette asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Bobby Yahouedeou is a better footballer than he was

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.

Match

Danny Namaso among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Danny Namaso on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AJ Auxerre and FC Lorient.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre still without a manager

10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 17. 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.

Boardroom

Doors closed at AJ Auxerre

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

212 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Interim Coach is out at AJ Auxerre

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Boardroom

A stranger takes charge at AJ Auxerre

The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.

Transfer targets

Shina Ayodele due for a AJ Auxerre medical

Everything agreed with LOSC Lille, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Boardroom

Interim Coach steps up at AJ Auxerre for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Josué Casimir

Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Pape Sy hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

The step up is real for Emrick Bombo Zengo

At 21 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Boardroom

7 academy players handed senior numbers at AJ Auxerre

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

In brief

211 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

An offer of $2.4M for Ange Lago

AJ Auxerre have gone to Olympique de Marseille 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.

The dugout

Keba Sylla keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AJ Auxerre may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tony Mendy is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Transfer targets

Enguerrand Bouard due for a AJ Auxerre medical

Everything agreed with Heidenheim, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre to lose Mathis-Tony Loue for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mathis-Tony Loue 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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre rebuffed over Alessandro Longoni

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

210 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

16 seasons of Donovan Léon

421 appearances across 16 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and AJ Auxerre know what they have.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre rebuffed over Nordan Mukiele

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chamois Niortais have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Josué Casimir wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from Chihab El Mehdi at AJ Auxerre

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Chihab El Mehdi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre ask about Alessandro Longoni

A loan enquiry to Paris Saint-Germain: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Louis Mezerette

“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.

Market

The Danny Namaso talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

209 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Louis Mezerette out for 15 days

15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Jair Tavares puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Peter Ouaneh

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Ouaneh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

Rémy Gauthier due for a AJ Auxerre medical

Everything agreed with Paris Saint-Germain, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

Ajdin Muminovic turns down AJ Auxerre

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympique Lyonnais keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Bobby Yahouedeou at AJ Auxerre

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bobby Yahouedeou is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Anis Mathurin

“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.

In brief

  • Market The shop window has Pape Sy in it
  • The dugout Peter Ouaneh knocks on the manager’s door
  • Boardroom The AJ Auxerre production line keeps running
208 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Louis Mezerette out for 22 days

22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Transfer targets

Adam Žulevič’s move to AJ Auxerre collapses on the table

Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Genoa; AJ Auxerre go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Romain Jean-Baptiste

AJ Auxerre asked and Coventry City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow Ajdin Muminovic

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.

Market

The Tony Mendy talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Christos Papadopoulos has been promised minutes

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 Christos Papadopoulos has written the date down.

In brief

207 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Jérôme Moreau

19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AJ Auxerre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Peter Ouaneh hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Raymond Lacroix is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow Romain Jean-Baptiste

Coventry City 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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre ask about Adam Žulevič

A loan enquiry to Genoa: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Boardroom

$900.0K lands at AJ Auxerre thanks to Elisha Owusu

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid AJ Auxerre $900.0K. Elisha Owusu left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kiliane Assougrou

“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.

In brief

206 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Jérôme Moreau damages knee ligaments — 26 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.

Transfer targets

Chamois Niortais tell AJ Auxerre: Nordan Mukiele is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from Olivier Caron at AJ Auxerre

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Olivier Caron is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Tony Mendy stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Tony Mendy and AJ Auxerre agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow Alessandro Longoni

Paris Saint-Germain 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.

Boardroom

7 new boys at the AJ Auxerre academy

Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.

The dugout

Christos Papadopoulos gets it from the manager

“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.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre bank $1.0M from an old deal

The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Bryan Okoh is somebody else's player now, and $1.0M has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.

In brief

205 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Jérôme Moreau out for 33 days

33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AJ Auxerre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

The step up is real for Tony Mendy

At 23 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.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Andrés Vombergar

“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.

Market

Frédéric Martinez steps up from the AJ Auxerre academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Frédéric Martinez 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.

Market

One of our own: Christophe Martin joins the AJ Auxerre first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christophe Martin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Frédéric Simon steps up from the AJ Auxerre academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Frédéric Simon 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.

Market

One of our own: Henri Aubert joins the AJ Auxerre first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henri Aubert is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

204 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Louis Mezerette damages knee ligaments — 50 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Transfer targets

$460.0K settles it between the clubs for Kelvin Dongopandji

Tours have accepted the money. What AJ Auxerre do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Transfer targets

Too dear: AJ Auxerre walk away from Nordan Mukiele

$3.7M was the most the club would pay and Chamois Niortais were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Mamadou Sawané arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mamadou Sawané has, at AJ Auxerre, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre rebuffed over Ajdin Muminovic

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

203 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre bid $3.7M for Nordan Mukiele

The offer went to Chamois Niortais 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 dugout

Christos Papadopoulos: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Chihab El Mehdi asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Josué Casimir what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Casimir wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Valenciennes tell AJ Auxerre: Ilyas Azizi is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Bobby Yahouedeou is a square peg at AJ Auxerre

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.

The dugout

Fredrik Oppegård asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

202 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Lamine Sy says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Transfer targets

$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Ilann Garin

Sochaux have accepted the money. What AJ Auxerre do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Peter Ouaneh asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre rebuffed over Nordan Mukiele

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chamois Niortais have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Peter Ouaneh is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Bobby Yahouedeou arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bobby Yahouedeou has, at AJ Auxerre, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow Ilyas Azizi

Valenciennes 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.

In brief

201 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Mouhamed Coulibaly puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Peter Ouaneh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre ask about Loan Merrifield

A loan enquiry to FC Nantes: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pape Sy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pape Sy, and the manager let it.

Market

Danny Namaso linked with a move away

The name of Danny Namaso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre can sign again

The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.

Squad

AJ Auxerre have started building around Chihab El Mehdi

He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.

In brief

200 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Clément Akpa is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Pape Sy: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Arthur Girault puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre to lose Victor Moinet for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Victor Moinet 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Louis Mezerette asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Market

The shop window has Peter Ouaneh in it

AJ Auxerre have let the market know Peter Ouaneh can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

Market

The Tony Mendy talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

199 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Willange Pembélé asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

Andrés Vombergar gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Marvin Senaya talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Christos Papadopoulos knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

198 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Peter Ouaneh asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Peter Ouaneh is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Sinaly Diomandé 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 dugout

Andrés Vombergar asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

197 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Josué Casimir wants to know where this is going

“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 AJ Auxerre hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Nicolas Saint-Ruf signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolas Saint-Ruf commits to AJ Auxerre for another 1 years.

The dugout

Andrés Vombergar knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrés Vombergar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Pape Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Danny Namaso linked with a move away

The name of Danny Namaso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

Boardroom

$621.6K a year onto the AJ Auxerre books

A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.

In brief

196 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Clément Akpa is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

Christos Papadopoulos has been promised minutes

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 Christos Papadopoulos has written the date down.

The dugout

Peter Ouaneh knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Tony Mendy talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

195 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Sinaly Diomandé what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sinaly Diomandé wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Market

The Marvin Senaya talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AJ Auxerre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Lamine Sy has been promised minutes

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 Lamine Sy has written the date down.

The dugout

Peter Ouaneh asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

194 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Willange Pembélé puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Peter Ouaneh

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Ouaneh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

A promise honoured at AJ Auxerre

Something was said to Andrés Vombergar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Telli Siwe 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 dugout

No hiding place for Christos Papadopoulos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christos Papadopoulos, and the manager let it.

Market

Clément Akpa placed on the list

AJ Auxerre have made Clément Akpa available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

The dugout

The manager makes Lamine Sy a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AJ Auxerre. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

193 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

10 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

The season ends: position 15 for AJ Auxerre

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 25 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

Market

Peter Ouaneh hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

Andrés Vombergar’s goal not enough for AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Monaco, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Danny Namaso

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Danny Namaso has come out of that comparison in the side, and AJ Auxerre have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

Market

Lucio Garberi is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AJ Auxerre has been clear about where Lucio Garberi stands, which is more than many ever get.

In brief

192 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre give the job to Interim Coach

The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.

Market

Clément Akpa has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Danny Namaso out for 16 days

The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Danny Namaso, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre find a way past FC Metz

FC Metz made AJ Auxerre work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Fredrik Oppegård

Marked 8.42 — 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.

Player ratings

Danny Namaso was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.30. 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Eros Maddy

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

191 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Donovan Léon

There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Boardroom

Peter Ouaneh signs for Toulouse FC while still at AJ Auxerre

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Peter Ouaneh has agreed terms with Toulouse FC for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Eros Maddy

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Tony Mendy signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tony Mendy and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy

“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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AJ Auxerre dressing room was either.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Clément Akpa

Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

In brief

190 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Both of them Andrés Vombergar's — 8.90

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.90, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Peter Ouaneh has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

Andrés Vombergar sends AJ Auxerre past Le Havre AC

It finished 2‑1, and it was Andrés Vombergar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AJ Auxerre.

Player ratings

Fredrik Oppegård runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Lucio Garberi signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucio Garberi commits to AJ Auxerre for another 3 years.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.

The dugout

Christos Papadopoulos gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

189 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

A hiding for AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑3 by LOSC Lille, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Willange Pembélé asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre still without a manager

10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Fredrik Oppegård gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Nicolas Saint-Ruf signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolas Saint-Ruf commits to AJ Auxerre for another 1 years.

Boardroom

Doors closed at AJ Auxerre

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout A promise honoured for Lamine Sy
  • Market Danny Namaso linked with a move away
188 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre part company with Luc Lambert

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Match

AJ Auxerre end the wait against Nimes

It had gone 16 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Match

AJ Auxerre tear Nimes apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Nimes, and it could have been more.

Market

Clément Akpa hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre have nobody left to take training

Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.

Market

Clément Akpa has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

The AJ Auxerre board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Squad

Danny Namaso takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Boardroom

Interim Coach steps up at AJ Auxerre for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

In brief

187 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

16 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at AJ Auxerre

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at AJ Auxerre is running low.

Market

Peter Ouaneh puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants European nights

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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Donovan Léon

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Donovan Léon, and the manager let it.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against OGC Nice

1‑2 to OGC Nice, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Telli Siwe 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.

Squad

Guillaume Lefebvre signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillaume Lefebvre and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years.

In brief

186 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

15 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.

Match

Chastening afternoon for AJ Auxerre

A 0‑3 beating by Olympique Lyonnais was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Josué Casimir what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Casimir wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Squad

Kiliane Assougrou out for 34 days

The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Kiliane Assougrou, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy

“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.

In brief

185 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Donovan Léon

There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Willange Pembélé puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Nordan Mukiele deal

AJ Auxerre ran out of time with Chamois Niortais. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

In brief

184 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

13 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Clément Akpa is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Nordan Mukiele

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AJ Auxerre have done the hard part with Chamois Niortais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone

That is the business done at AJ Auxerre 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.

Market

Josué Casimir raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Squad

Donovan Léon signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Donovan Léon commits to AJ Auxerre for another 2 years.

Player ratings

Fredrik Oppegård runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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

183 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

12 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Donovan Léon

There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the AJ Auxerre boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Match

AJ Auxerre taken apart

0‑3 to Paris Saint-Germain, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre agree $2.8M for Ange Lago

The clubs have shaken hands with Olympique de Marseille; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre rebuffed over Tommaso Ebone

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Frosinone have kept their man, and AJ Auxerre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sinaly Diomandé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Inquest at AJ Auxerre

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

In brief

182 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 33. 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.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Nordan Mukiele

AJ Auxerre and Chamois Niortais have settled on $2.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.

Market

Arthur Girault hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

25 clean sheets for Donovan Léon

A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Donovan Léon now has 25 of them across 410 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.

Squad

Mouhamed Coulibaly signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mouhamed Coulibaly and AJ Auxerre agree another 2 years.

The dugout

Luc Lambert on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luc Lambert after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

  • Boardroom AJ Auxerre bank $293.3K from an old deal
  • The dugout When it matters, Lamine Sy plays
  • Looking ahead The leaders are next for AJ Auxerre
181 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Clément Akpa agrees terms with Olympique de Marseille

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AJ Auxerre people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

Nowhere to hide for AJ Auxerre

2‑5 against RC Strasbourg, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Lamine Sy delivers — 7.65

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lamine Sy scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

The dugout

Anis Mathurin: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Nordan Mukiele

AJ Auxerre asked and Chamois Niortais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Willange Pembélé asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Shina Ayodele

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AJ Auxerre have done the hard part with LOSC Lille, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

In brief

180 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

Nowhere to hide for AJ Auxerre

0‑3 against Angers SCO, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 21 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Tom Cabarrou puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Ilyas Azizi is a medical away from AJ Auxerre

The deal with Valenciennes 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Donovan Léon

“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.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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.

Squad

Erawan Garnier stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Erawan Garnier and AJ Auxerre agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

Nobody left the AJ Auxerre dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

179 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at AJ Auxerre

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 30 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Donovan Léon

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Danny Namaso at his very best

Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AJ Auxerre.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

178 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Nicolas Saint-Ruf breaks a bone — 38 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Clément Akpa has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

7 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Eros Maddy runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre come up short against Toulouse FC

Toulouse FC left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

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 Luc Lambert left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

AJ Auxerre keep their word to Erawan Garnier

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.

In brief

177 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

47 days out for Nicolas Saint-Ruf after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

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.

Squad

6 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Sinaly Diomandé what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sinaly Diomandé wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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.

Match

FC Lorient snatch it back from AJ Auxerre

A goal on 85 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.

Match

Honours even between AJ Auxerre and FC Lorient

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

In brief

176 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Clément Akpa hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 55 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Donovan Léon stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Josué Casimir what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Casimir wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Monaco take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

  • Match The half-term report on AJ Auxerre
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout When it matters, Lamine Sy plays
175 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at AJ Auxerre

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre spell it out for Luc Lambert

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Luc Lambert has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Squad

Nicolas Saint-Ruf breaks a bone — 63 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Boardroom

Emergency meeting at AJ Auxerre

The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.

The dugout

Keba Sylla says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Match

4 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

174 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

71 days out for Nicolas Saint-Ruf after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Clément Akpa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Clément Akpa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Donovan Léon stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 26. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinaly Diomandé 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre come up short against FC Nantes

FC Nantes left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

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 Luc Lambert left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Louis Mezerette

“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.

In brief

173 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

79 days out for Nicolas Saint-Ruf after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Josué Casimir

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Telli Siwe in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Luc Lambert on the draw

“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.

The dugout

Pape Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

AJ Auxerre and Le Havre AC cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Le Havre AC came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

Squad

Country calls for Danny Namaso

He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. AJ Auxerre lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.

Market

Marvin Senaya linked with a move away

The name of Marvin Senaya keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

172 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 87 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants to know where this is going

“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 AJ Auxerre hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

LOSC Lille take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

Luc Lambert answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Player ratings

One moment undoes Marvin Senaya

There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.

The dugout

Marvin Senaya is still paying for one afternoon at AJ Auxerre

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

In brief

171 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 96 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Both of them Andrés Vombergar's — 8.79

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.79, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

The drought breaks for AJ Auxerre

10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Nimes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Squad

Donovan Léon keeps AJ Auxerre in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Josué Casimir wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

AJ Auxerre get the job done against Nimes

A 2‑0 win over Nimes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Senaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Danny Namaso

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AJ Auxerre told Danny Namaso something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Lamine Sy has become a man the manager trusts
  • Market No place for Nicolas Saint-Ruf in the plan
170 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

10 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Nicolas Saint-Ruf out for 106 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AJ Auxerre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Clément Akpa has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

The dugout

Pape Sy says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

One of those days for Danny Namaso

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Danny Namaso rescues a point for AJ Auxerre

It needed Danny Namaso to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against OGC Nice, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Luc Lambert: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

In brief

169 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

9 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Match

AJ Auxerre taken apart

0‑4 to Olympique Lyonnais, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Squad

114 days out for Nicolas Saint-Ruf after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

7 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Donovan Léon

“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.

In brief

  • Boardroom Nobody left the AJ Auxerre dressing room in a hurry
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout A promise honoured at AJ Auxerre
168 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

125 days out for Nicolas Saint-Ruf after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AJ Auxerre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

A hiding for AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑3 by Olympique de Marseille, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Clément Akpa puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

3 matches without a goal for AJ Auxerre

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Senaya 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.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

167 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

7 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

The dugout

Peter Ouaneh: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Paris FC take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

Luc Lambert: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The terraces

Everybody has an opinion about Donovan Léon

He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets picked when it counts

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 Lamine Sy is on it.

In brief

166 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

A hiding for AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑3 by Paris Saint-Germain, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Only the photograph left for Clément Akpa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Clément Akpa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

Louis Mezerette: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for AJ Auxerre

6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Boardroom

Nobody left the AJ Auxerre dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

165 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The cup run ends for AJ Auxerre

0‑3 against FC Lorient, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Pape Sy

There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Both of them Danny Namaso's — 8.64

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.64, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

The terraces

AJ Auxerre are taken apart by FC Lorient — and the town wants answers

It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for AJ Auxerre

5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

The dugout

Donovan Léon gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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.

In brief

164 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

6 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Jamal Gonzaga signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jamal Gonzaga commits to AJ Auxerre for another 4 years.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against RC Strasbourg

0‑2 to RC Strasbourg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Danny Namaso runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Luc Lambert faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luc Lambert after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Andrés Vombergar asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pape Sy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pape Sy, and the manager let it.

In brief

163 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

A brace, and Eros Maddy takes the afternoon — 9.64

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eros Maddy provided it, and the 9.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Both of them Tony Mendy's — 9.30

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Donovan Léon keeps AJ Auxerre in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Clément Akpa reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Match

AJ Auxerre rescue it on 89 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Angers SCO had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

Match

AJ Auxerre share the spoils with Angers SCO

A 4‑4 draw with Angers SCO leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

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.” Luc Lambert chose the glass-half-full version of 4‑4; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

162 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Only the photograph left for Clément Akpa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Clément Akpa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 11 in, 18 out at AJ Auxerre

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Stade Rennais take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Both jobs done by Marvin Senaya — 7.26

A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.26, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Senaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Pape Sy signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pape Sy commits to AJ Auxerre for another 2 years.

The dugout

Luc Lambert faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luc Lambert after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

161 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

At last: AJ Auxerre win one

10 matches without a win, and then this, against Toulouse FC. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

One of their own: Tony Mendy

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.

Match

Tony Mendy the difference as AJ Auxerre beat Toulouse FC

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tony Mendy. 2‑0 against Toulouse FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Tony Mendy was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.01. 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.

Squad

Chihab El Mehdi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chihab El Mehdi and AJ Auxerre agree another 3 years.

Player ratings

Axel Tuanzebe was immovable

18 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy

“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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Nothing got past Sinaly Diomandé
  • Player ratings Eros Maddy runs at them all day
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
160 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Both of them Danny Namaso's — 8.79

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.79, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre make their move for Oussama Lyakoubi

$2.9M on the table at FC Lorient. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Peter Ouaneh asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy moves on

RC Lens pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A move Arsène Dezailles would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arsène Dezailles is living that version at AJ Auxerre, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Boardroom

6 academy players handed senior numbers at AJ Auxerre

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

In brief

159 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Terms done: Nikolay Obolskiy is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and RC Lens waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Lamine Sy signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lamine Sy and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Telli Siwe 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.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow M'Bala Nzola

Inter 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.

The dugout

Lamine Sy has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at AJ Auxerre 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 dugout

Jamal Gonzaga knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jamal Gonzaga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

158 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Théo De Percin turns Clermont Foot down

“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.

Market

Josué Casimir raises the bar for AJ Auxerre

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AJ Auxerre heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Raymond Lacroix is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikolay Obolskiy

“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.

Squad

Kiliane Assougrou stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Kiliane Assougrou and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

No place for Christos Papadopoulos in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christos Papadopoulos has his answer from AJ Auxerre; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

157 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the AJ Auxerre boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Théo De Percin hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Erawan Garnier is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

Louis Mezerette gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Marvin Senaya linked with a move away

The name of Marvin Senaya keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

Market

AJ Auxerre put Peter Ouaneh up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Peter Ouaneh may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

156 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Only the photograph left for Théo De Percin

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Théo De Percin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Íñigo Ariztia is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

A late step up for Jamal Gonzaga

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.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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.

Market

Danny Namaso linked with a move away

The name of Danny Namaso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

155 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Terms done: Nikolay Obolskiy is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and RC Lens waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The step up is real for Pierre Réale

At 20 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.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Eros Maddy stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Eros Maddy and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Peter Ouaneh

“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.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre bank $900.0K from an old deal

The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Elisha Owusu is somebody else's player now, and $900.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets picked when it counts

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 Lamine Sy is on it.

In brief

154 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Only the photograph left for Clément Akpa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Clément Akpa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Nicolas Saint-Ruf asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Squad

Donovan Léon signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Donovan Léon and AJ Auxerre agree another 2 years.

Squad

Tony Mendy is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Christos Papadopoulos has improved at 24, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Market

RC Lens expected to open talks for Nikolay Obolskiy

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AJ Auxerre will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lamine Sy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lamine Sy, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

$1.0M lands at AJ Auxerre thanks to Bryan Okoh

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid AJ Auxerre $1.0M. Bryan Okoh left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

In brief

153 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at AJ Auxerre

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Donovan Léon signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Donovan Léon commits to AJ Auxerre for another 2 years.

Squad

Erawan Garnier is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants European nights

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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Senaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Peter Ouaneh in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Intake day at the AJ Auxerre academy

7 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.

In brief

152 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa has said yes to Olympique Lyonnais

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AJ Auxerre have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Théo De Percin is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Louis Mezerette and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Danny Namaso linked with a move away

The name of Danny Namaso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AJ Auxerre say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Eros Maddy asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

Nicolas Saint-Ruf has been promised minutes

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 Nicolas Saint-Ruf has written the date down.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Clément Akpa

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Clément Akpa has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief

151 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Olympique Lyonnais join the queue for Clément Akpa

Add another name to the list: Olympique Lyonnais have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Clément Akpa. The answer from AJ Auxerre has not changed — yet.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Lamine Sy plays

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 dugout

Eros Maddy knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Squad

Louis Mezerette: “I am not a substitute”

“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one AJ Auxerre will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.

Market

The shop window has Nicolas Saint-Ruf in it

AJ Auxerre have let the market know Nicolas Saint-Ruf can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

150 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Pierre

19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AJ Auxerre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy has said yes to RC Lens

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AJ Auxerre have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

AJ Auxerre turn down LOSC Lille for Danny Namaso

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

No hiding place for Louis Mezerette

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Louis Mezerette, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

$1.4M lands at AJ Auxerre thanks to Theo Bair

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid AJ Auxerre $1.4M. Theo Bair left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

The dugout

Kiliane Assougrou is still paying for one afternoon at AJ Auxerre

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

The terraces

The Clément Akpa rumours reach the terraces

What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. AJ Auxerre would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.

In brief

149 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Pierre

26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AJ Auxerre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at AJ Auxerre

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at AJ Auxerre is running low.

Market

Dylan Reid puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe wants to know where this is going

“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 AJ Auxerre hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Moïse Adilehou is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre to lose Moïse Adilehou for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Moïse Adilehou 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

No hiding place for Peter Ouaneh

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Ouaneh, and the manager let it.

In brief

148 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Nicolas Pierre damages knee ligaments — 34 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.

Market

Théo De Percin has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikolay Obolskiy

“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.

Market

Arthur Girault returns from a loan that taught him nothing

0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.

Market

The Marvin Senaya question follows AJ Auxerre around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marvin Senaya’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Nicolas Saint-Ruf knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

The manager makes Théo De Percin a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AJ Auxerre. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

147 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Only the photograph left for Nikolay Obolskiy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Obolskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

Lamine Sy gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Clément Akpa question follows AJ Auxerre around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Clément Akpa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Lamine Sy has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at AJ Auxerre 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 dugout

A door opens for Peter Ouaneh

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Nicolas Saint-Ruf knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AJ Auxerre, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

146 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Pierre Réale damages knee ligaments — 19 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

The dugout

Lamine Sy: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Loan watch

Arthur Girault has seen enough of Red Star

“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 AJ Auxerre, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.

Squad

Emrick Bombo Zengo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

The Danny Namaso story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danny Namaso signs something — a contract at AJ Auxerre or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Kiliane Assougrou is still paying for one afternoon at AJ Auxerre

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

The dugout

Peter Ouaneh has been promised minutes

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 Peter Ouaneh has written the date down.

In brief

145 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Pierre Réale

27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AJ Auxerre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Francisco Sierralta hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AJ Auxerre can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Francisco Sierralta: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AJ Auxerre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar out for 31 days

The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Andrés Vombergar, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Market

Josué Casimir wants to know where this is going

“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 AJ Auxerre hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Home is on Francisco Sierralta's mind

“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; AJ Auxerre are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Eros Maddy

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AJ Auxerre told Eros Maddy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

The dugout

Jamal Gonzaga asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

144 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Pierre Réale damages knee ligaments — 35 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.

Market

Théo De Percin is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Francisco Sierralta wants to finish where he started

Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and AJ Auxerre now know that too.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nikolay Obolskiy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolay Obolskiy, and the manager let it.

Market

The Marvin Senaya question follows AJ Auxerre around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marvin Senaya’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Jamal Gonzaga knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jamal Gonzaga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

143 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Tom Cabarrou gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tom Cabarrou has just signed for AJ Auxerre, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Tom Cabarrou signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tom Cabarrou and AJ Auxerre agree another 3 years.

Market

The Clément Akpa question follows AJ Auxerre around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Clément Akpa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Lamine Sy gets picked when it counts

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 Lamine Sy is on it.

In brief

142 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Donovan Léon for 14 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AJ Auxerre will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

AJ Auxerre lose Louka Vandenbossche

14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Loan watch

Arthur Girault has seen enough of Red Star

“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 AJ Auxerre, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.

Market

Nicolas Saint-Ruf told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nicolas Saint-Ruf has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AJ Auxerre.

Market

The Danny Namaso story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danny Namaso signs something — a contract at AJ Auxerre or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Kiliane Assougrou is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

141 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

9 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.

Match

Nowhere to hide for AJ Auxerre

0‑4 against Monaco, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Match

AJ Auxerre finish in position 15

26 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

Market

Augusto Kalayda has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Doors closed at AJ Auxerre

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

The dugout

Luc Lambert: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

140 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

8 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Market

Théo De Percin is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

Match

A bad afternoon for AJ Auxerre against FC Nantes

0‑1 to FC Nantes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Senaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

AJ Auxerre keep their word to Danny Namaso

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.

The dugout

Luc Lambert faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luc Lambert after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Nikolay Obolskiy gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

139 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Clément Akpa asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Match

The wait goes on for AJ Auxerre

7 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.

Player ratings

Fredrik Oppegård beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Only the photograph left for Nikolay Obolskiy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Obolskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

Le Havre AC take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

A muscle injury and 14 days out for Omer Taygun

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. AJ Auxerre will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

The dugout

Luc Lambert answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Emrick Bombo Zengo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

138 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

6 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Sinaly Diomandé

Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Squad

Telli Siwe in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Loan watch

Arthur Girault has seen enough of Red Star

“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 AJ Auxerre, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Keba Sylla

“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 dugout

Luc Lambert on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luc Lambert after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

Player ratings

Axel Tuanzebe shuts the door

Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Marvin Senaya

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

In brief

137 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

13 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Augusto Kalayda has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Danny Namaso is carrying AJ Auxerre

15 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Senaya 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.

Player ratings

Eros Maddy in the eights

A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Late, late show earns AJ Auxerre a point

Minute 93, against OGC Nice, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

AJ Auxerre and OGC Nice take a point apiece

It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

136 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for AJ Auxerre

A 0‑3 beating by Olympique Lyonnais was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Théo De Percin has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

4 matches without a win for AJ Auxerre

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AJ Auxerre are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Marvin Senaya signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marvin Senaya and AJ Auxerre agree another 4 years.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

The goals have deserted AJ Auxerre

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AJ Auxerre can tell you which week it ends in.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Donovan Léon

“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.

In brief

  • Boardroom Doors closed at AJ Auxerre
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Squad A place in the month's best eleven for Djibril Coulibaly
135 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Donovan Léon keeps AJ Auxerre in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Pape Sy says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Nikolay Obolskiy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Obolskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AJ Auxerre the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Josué Casimir has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Olympique de Marseille take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Telli Siwe stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Telli Siwe and AJ Auxerre agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

134 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Clément Akpa wants European nights

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

The run at home goes on for AJ Auxerre

8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Squad

Marvin Senaya 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 ratings

The afternoon belonged to Marvin Senaya

A mark of 7.86, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

Loan watch

Arthur Girault counts the days

“I watch every AJ Auxerre game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Red Star runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Luc Lambert on the draw

“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.

Squad

A ban for Axel Tuanzebe

One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. AJ Auxerre lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.

In brief

133 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

AJ Auxerre taken apart

1‑5 to Paris Saint-Germain, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Terms done: Théo De Percin is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Le Havre AC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

AJ Auxerre say no — this time

The offer from RC Strasbourg for Nikolay Obolskiy 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.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Augusto Kalayda is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AJ Auxerre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Danny Namaso is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.26 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AJ Auxerre and Paris Saint-Germain in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

In brief

132 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

A brace, and Danny Namaso takes the afternoon — 9.26

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danny Namaso provided it, and the 9.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Boardroom

AJ Auxerre close the window on a squad of their own making

2 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Sinaly Diomandé wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Danny Namaso is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.25 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Transfer targets

OGC Nice tell AJ Auxerre: Teddy Boulhendi is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

Danny Namaso the difference as AJ Auxerre beat RC Lens

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danny Namaso. 2‑0 against RC Lens, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Emrick Bombo Zengo 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Lamine Sy

“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.

In brief

131 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

AC Ajaccio tell AJ Auxerre: Mehdi Chahiri is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

RC Strasbourg take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Senaya 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.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Peter Ouaneh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Francisco Sierralta wants to go home

“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 AJ Auxerre know it.

The dugout

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 Luc Lambert to a room that had heard them before.

Player ratings

Fredrik Oppegård beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

AJ Auxerre try to borrow Luke Faxon

Osasuna 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.

The dugout

Peter Ouaneh gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

130 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

AJ Auxerre tear Angers SCO apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Angers SCO, and it could have been more.

Squad

A day Danny Namaso will not forget

4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Market

Nikolay Obolskiy agrees terms with RC Strasbourg

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AJ Auxerre people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Olympique de Marseille come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and AJ Auxerre did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Player ratings

Vintage Andrés Vombergar — 9.08

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.08, and nobody on the pitch better.

Squad

Pape Sy stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Francisco Sierralta puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Kiliane Assougrou says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Tyrese Noubissie

AJ Auxerre asked and RC Strasbourg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

129 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Pape Sy keeps AJ Auxerre in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

AJ Auxerre say no — this time

The offer from RC Strasbourg for Nikolay Obolskiy 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.

Market

Augusto Kalayda has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AJ Auxerre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Assane Dioussé moves on

Paris Saint-Germain pay $1.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Transfer targets

Allen Obando will not be coming to AJ Auxerre

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Inter Miami CF is saying, and nobody at AJ Auxerre is enjoying the guessing.

Match

No end in sight to AJ Auxerre's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AJ Auxerre has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Augusto Kalayda has agreed to leave AJ Auxerre for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

A falling-out at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Tuanzebe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

128 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Business is business: Lasso Coulibaly goes

LOSC Lille paid $9.6M and AJ Auxerre took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

The dugout

Jamal Gonzaga says AJ Auxerre went back on their word

“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.

The terraces

A $9.6M sale, and a town that did not want it

Lasso Coulibaly has gone, the accounts have $9.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.

Squad

Donovan Léon pulls a muscle — 15 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Market

Josué Casimir wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

AJ Auxerre get their man

The chase for Keba Sylla ended with $620.0K changing hands and Nimes out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Squad

Andrés Vombergar in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AJ Auxerre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Keba Sylla gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Keba Sylla has just signed for AJ Auxerre, and for once the answer mattered.

In brief

127 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

A brace, and Andrés Vombergar takes the afternoon — 8.85

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrés Vombergar provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

7 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Market

Clément Akpa wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

FC Lorient take the points off AJ Auxerre

Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Luc Lambert faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luc Lambert after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

The armband comes off Donovan Léon

AJ Auxerre will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.

In brief

126 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Lasso Coulibaly runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Lasso Coulibaly puts it in writing

“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 AJ Auxerre, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

AJ Auxerre may not be able to give Josué Casimir what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Casimir wants continental football; whether AJ Auxerre can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Squad

Danny Namaso reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Player ratings

One of those days for Danny Namaso

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns AJ Auxerre a point

Minute 88, against Tours, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Squad

AJ Auxerre lose Tidiane Devernois

24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

In brief

125 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

AJ Auxerre tear Stade Brestois apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Stade Brestois, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

A brace, and Lasso Coulibaly takes the afternoon — 8.05

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lasso Coulibaly provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Player ratings

One of those days for Danny Namaso

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.85, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

A row about effort at AJ Auxerre

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marvin Senaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Peter Ouaneh 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.

Player ratings

Clément Akpa shuts the door

Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

The dugout

Luc Lambert has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Luc Lambert on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

124 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Danny Namaso wins it after the whistle should have gone

95 minutes played. Danny Namaso found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Monaco went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Squad

3 goals for Danny Namaso

The match ball belongs to Danny Namaso, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Squad

7 saves: Donovan Léon was the team

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.

Market

Clément Akpa has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AJ Auxerre can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Player ratings

Danny Namaso in the eights

A performance of 9.68 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Tuanzebe 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.

Match

AJ Auxerre find a way past Monaco

Monaco made AJ Auxerre work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Lasso Coulibaly beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nicolas Saint-Ruf

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Saint-Ruf, and the manager let it.

In brief

123 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

AJ Auxerre taken apart

0‑4 to FC Nantes, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Axel Tuanzebe wants more than AJ Auxerre are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Donovan Léon signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Donovan Léon commits to AJ Auxerre for another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

Axel Tuanzebe 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 dugout

Donovan Léon gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

Josué Casimir was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. 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.

Squad

Assane Dioussé reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Boardroom

Nobody left the AJ Auxerre dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The terraces The spotlight tightens on Donovan Léon
  • The dugout Assane Dioussé has become a man the manager trusts
122 Edition

The AJ Auxerre Sentinel

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Lasso Coulibaly asks to leave AJ Auxerre

“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.

Match

The drought breaks for AJ Auxerre

13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Le Havre AC were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Match

AJ Auxerre are in real trouble now

Position 16, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Player ratings

Lasso Coulibaly beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Andrés Vombergar, 34, rolls back the years — 8.04

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Words exchanged at AJ Auxerre

Andrés Vombergar 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.

Squad

100 goals in the shirt for Andrés Vombergar

100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.

Match

Andrés Vombergar the difference as AJ Auxerre beat Le Havre AC

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrés Vombergar. 1‑0 against Le Havre AC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Words at AJ Auxerre training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Senaya 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.

In brief