Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Lacour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacques Mbiandjeu and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Lacour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 95% of everything Bourg-Peronnas earn
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Rayanne Fabre's mistake
Paris Saint-Germain go through and Bourg-Peronnas go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Bohemians 1905 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bourg-Peronnas and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
“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; Bourg-Peronnas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 Thomas Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandre Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Quentin Lacour 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francis Kembolo, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacques Mbiandjeu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It needed Ange-Kévine Gnabo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Le Puy Foot 43, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Jacquet chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Ange-Kévine Gnabo is on it.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.76, and 2 involvements.
Francis Kembolo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Fernandes 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Thomas Jacquet kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
“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 Bourg-Peronnas, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Fernandes 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rayan Souici trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Quentin Lacour and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ange-Kévine Gnabo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adel Lembezat. 1‑0 against LB Chateauroux, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Adel Lembezat was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
“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 Bourg-Peronnas, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Quentin Lacour 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rayan Souici, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewan Hatfout is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thomas Jacquet after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Ange-Kévine Gnabo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 113th minute. Stade Brestois will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Quentin Lacour and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dijon have kept their man, and Bourg-Peronnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bourg-Peronnas ran out of time with AJ Auxerre. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bourg-Peronnas ran out of time with EA Guingamp. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: ESTAC Troyes keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and FC Versailles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Star have kept their man, and Bourg-Peronnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewan Hatfout was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$3.0M settles it between the clubs for Sohaib Naïr
EA Guingamp have accepted the money. What Bourg-Peronnas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Le Mans FC 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Monaco is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
$110.0K on the table at FC Versailles. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
He is 19, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AJ Auxerre have kept their man, and Bourg-Peronnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Quentin Lacour 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.
Francis Kembolo 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“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 Bourg-Peronnas, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Everything agreed with AJ Auxerre, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to FC Versailles 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.
$91.0K on the table at Le Puy Foot 43. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$87.0K was the most the club would pay and Le Puy Foot 43 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Lacour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bourg-Peronnas and Monaco have settled on $250.0K. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with Olympique de Marseille, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bourg-Peronnas offered $110.0K; FC Versailles said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bourg-Peronnas, another week without a signature from Destin Banzouzi.
Everything agreed with FC Nantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to FC Versailles 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.
Bourg-Peronnas have gone to Le Puy Foot 43 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jacques Mbiandjeu commits to Bourg-Peronnas for another 3 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and Bourg-Peronnas are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bourg-Peronnas has been clear about where Maher Bouyadel stands, which is more than many ever get.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bourg-Peronnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
The deal with AJ Auxerre 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.
Quentin Lacour 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ange-Kévine Gnabo and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I watch every Bourg-Peronnas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Annecy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
$110.0K on the table at FC Versailles. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Quentin Lacour 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with RC Lens, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mamadou Conté has his answer from Bourg-Peronnas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with AJ Auxerre, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bourg-Peronnas have gone to FC Versailles 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lenny Piètre and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bourg-Peronnas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bourg-Peronnas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The clubs have shaken hands with Monaco; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Grenoble Foot 38; Bourg-Peronnas go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Max Maréchal is living that version at Bourg-Peronnas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AJ Auxerre is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
The fee is $410.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AS Nancy drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Quentin Lacour 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 clubs have shaken hands with AS Nancy; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$4.2M was the most the club would pay and AS Nancy 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.
Quentin Lacour 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and AJ Auxerre said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Lenny Montfort has written the date down.
Training is not playing and everybody in the game knows it. Elhadj Keita has gone out on loan to a club that wants him in the side rather than around it, and he will come back either a better player or an answered question.
$3.0M settles it between the clubs for Sohaib Naïr
EA Guingamp have accepted the money. What Bourg-Peronnas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Monaco wanted more than $230.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Le Havre AC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: FC Annecy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elhadj Keita. The answer from Bourg-Peronnas has not changed — yet.
Bourg-Peronnas have gone to AS Nancy 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.
Bourg-Peronnas and AJ Auxerre have settled on $250.0K. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Do Marcolino is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at RC Lens is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Montpellier HSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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 phone has started ringing about Destin Banzouzi again, and this time the name on the line is Sampdoria. Bourg-Peronnas are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Bourg-Peronnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sidi Cissé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and ESTAC Troyes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bourg-Peronnas have made the call to Montpellier HSC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bourg-Peronnas, another week without a signature from Mohamed Sylla.
Sidi Cissé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sidi Cissé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Mathéo Bodmer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francis Kembolo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Benjamin Bešić has written the date down.
Mathéo Bodmer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Quentin Lacour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Nobody at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
Quentin Lacour 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sidi Cissé. 1‑0 against FC Fleury 91, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Teddy Boulhendi will call it something else in private.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Thomas Jacquet could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Jacquet chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Bourg-Peronnas squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Rayan Souici a promise
Sidi Cissé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bourg-Peronnas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1 for Mamadou Magassouba, marked 7.55, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Sidi Cissé 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 easiest signature of my career.” Cheikh Koïté and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mamadou Magassouba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bourg-Peronnas.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Andy Pembélé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Thomas Jacquet could afford to be generous.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
Sidi Cissé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bourg-Peronnas is running low.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bourg-Peronnas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Beimarse Tankiev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Bourg-Peronnas the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
7.68, 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.
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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Quentin Lacour, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Thomas Jacquet to a room that had heard them before.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Francis Kembolo.
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.
Quentin Lacour 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Minute 86, against US Orleans, 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Jacquet after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Quentin Lacour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Elysée Logbo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 2‑0 win over FC Villefranche, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 6.78 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bourg-Peronnas is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamin Bešić and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Quevilly-Rouen were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mohamed Sylla will call it something else in private.
Sidi Cissé 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer 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.
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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 Thomas Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Mamadou Magassouba 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 ratings8 Feb 2027
Jules Meyer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thomas Jacquet after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
1 for Mamadou Magassouba, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Bourg-Peronnas until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Le Mans FC is saying, and nobody at Bourg-Peronnas is enjoying the guessing.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bourg-Peronnas will try again when the window opens; Le Havre AC may not be selling by then.
The deal with AJ Auxerre 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Angers SCO said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Stade Lavallois; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Elysée Logbo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Valenciennes, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Thomas Jacquet to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have shaken hands with AS Saint-Etienne; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with AJ Auxerre, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Quentin Lacour and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sidi Cissé has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The deal with EA Guingamp 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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade de Reims keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Sidi Cissé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 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.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and FC Lorient said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Elhadj Keita has come up in conversations Bourg-Peronnas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 25 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.
Everything agreed with ESTAC Troyes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and ESTAC Troyes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Minute 87, against US Concarneau, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bourg-Peronnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thomas Jacquet after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against FC Fleury 91? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mathéo Bodmer and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sidi Cissé has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Teddy Boulhendi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Sidi Cissé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. 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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Quentin Lacour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Beimarse Tankiev is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Bourg-Peronnas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Elysée Logbo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elysée Logbo. 1‑0 against FC Rouen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Bourg-Peronnas support went home talking about one name.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Thomas Jacquet kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Do Marcolino 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Something was said to Teddy Boulhendi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Sidi Cissé 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Sidi Cissé 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
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 Beimarse Tankiev is on it.
Dijon next, and one man in the Bourg-Peronnas dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bourg-Peronnas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Do Marcolino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Thomas Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathéo Bodmer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Bourg-Peronnas lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
Quentin Lacour 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Thomas Jacquet to a room that had heard them before.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
At 22 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.
Quentin Lacour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andy Pembélé and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mathéo Bodmer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Teddy Boulhendi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
0‑3 to SC Aubagne Air Bel, 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Sidi Cissé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Thomas Jacquet to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathéo Bodmer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Sidi Cissé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Bourg-Peronnas are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Thomas Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Sidi Cissé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Quentin Lacour
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Andy Pembélé
7.68, 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Jules Meyer 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.
Jacques Mbiandjeu 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Thomas Jacquet kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bourg-Peronnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bourg-Peronnas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Bourg-Peronnas 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with AS Nancy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and AS Saint-Etienne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bourg-Peronnas can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bourg-Peronnas have done the hard part with Monaco, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Quentin Lacour and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Thomas Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bourg-Peronnas have made the call to AS Nancy. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The deal with OGC Nice 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.
Quentin Lacour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Bourg-Peronnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sidi Cissé had Bourg-Peronnas level again within 1 minutes, and FC Versailles never got to play with a lead at all.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bourg-Peronnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bourg-Peronnas asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Do Marcolino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Jacquet chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against US Concarneau? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: LOSC Lille keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Sidi Cissé 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Bourg-Peronnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathéo Bodmer 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jean Carpentier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Philippe Leroy has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henri Pierre is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hervé Dupuy has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
A loan enquiry to Olympique Lyonnais: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Quentin Lacour and Bourg-Peronnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathéo Bodmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Bourg-Peronnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Bourg-Peronnas are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Bourg-Peronnas have made the call to Stade Brestois. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bourg-Peronnas have made the call to Olympique Lyonnais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bourg-Peronnas, another week without a signature from Francis Kembolo.