44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around US Creteil people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at US Creteil. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at US Creteil can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Antoine Deschamps is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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.
Yann Lienard 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandre Vardin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Christophe Dufour's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at US Creteil
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The offer from Clermont Foot for Lenny Leonil 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at US Creteil 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. US Creteil have done the hard part with Olympique de Marseille, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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
The dugoutLenny Leonil has become a man the manager trusts
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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Olympique Lyonnais have accepted the money. What US Creteil 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 US Creteil can pretend not to have heard.
US Creteil had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Monaco, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
US Creteil asked and SV Ried 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: Clermont Foot have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lenny Leonil. The answer from US Creteil has not changed — yet.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Creteil can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Add another name to the list: RC Strasbourg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gaël Nsombi. The answer from US Creteil has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
US Creteil 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thibault Nguyen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadTommy Iva falls out with a teammate over standards
Transfer targetsA loan move for Joan Tincres is in the works
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at US Creteil
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. US Creteil have done the hard part with Olympique de Marseille, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
164% of the income goes out in wages at US Creteil
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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 12 and 6 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Creteil can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Yann Lienard 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 dugout21 Dec 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 François Bertrand left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
1‑6 against Chamois Niortais, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
7 goals in one match, Gaël Nsombi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of US Creteil and Chamois Niortais.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Émile Denis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Beaten 6 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at US Creteil
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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 words a physio says slowly. 124 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 terraces30 Nov 2026
The mood at US Creteil has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
3 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Bakayoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Paris Saint-Germain go through and US Creteil go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Creteil can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Tours, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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 dugout16 Nov 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by François Bertrand to a room that had heard them before.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between US Creteil and AS Nancy, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Richard Schneider 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” US Creteil have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Bakayoko 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 US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at US Creteil than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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 Brandon Agounon is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Ben Fredj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The terracesThe Gaël Nsombi rumours reach the terraces
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. 9 actions, 6.47, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and US Creteil are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The 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 François Bertrand to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Player ratingsStan Berkani beats them one at a time
The dugoutAxel Dauchy dropped after a run of poor form
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” US Creteil have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Bakayoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.66, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the US Creteil dressing room in a hurry
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Yann Lienard
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Pons is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Bourg-Peronnas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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 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.
7.40, 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.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
Ryan Ferhaoui scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Sochaux, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
222% of the income goes out in wages at US Creteil
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.
Sochaux held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. US Creteil answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at US Creteil has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Gaël Nsombi takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gaël Nsombi provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 goals in one match, Gaël Nsombi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of US Creteil and Stade Lavallois.
He is 23 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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.77, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑7 against Chamois Niortais, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between US Creteil and Chamois Niortais, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michel Leroux 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Romain Montiel will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at US Creteil escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Marked 7.84. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Ahmad Ngouyamsa 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.
US Creteil asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at US Creteil training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Bakayoko 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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Creteil lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
US Creteil asked and Eintracht Frankfurt 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Valenciennes scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and US Creteil 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.
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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Creteil lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Creteil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
0‑5 to Tours, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Alexandre Coeff was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Southampton have kept their man, and US Creteil go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paul Roux has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joseph Dubois has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Théodore Leclerc has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dominique Clément 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation US Creteil are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the US Creteil dressing room in a hurry
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Strasbourg have kept their man, and US Creteil go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. US Creteil will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nottingham Forest 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and US Creteil 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdessalem Boujenfa has his answer from US Creteil; what he does with it is the next window’s story.