Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Louis Mafouta takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Louis Mafouta provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jérémy Livolant and EA Guingamp agree another 4 years.
“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; EA Guingamp are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ilian Mhand has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means EA Guingamp have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolas Florival will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around EA Guingamp the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at EA Guingamp can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Amine Bassi 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 dugout1 Mar 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.” Yann Vincent chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around EA Guingamp they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Diego García was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
ESTAC Troyes next, and one man in the EA Guingamp dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutAmadou Samoura has become a man the manager trusts
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. EA Guingamp have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Nicolas Florival, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Quentin Merlin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rodez AF were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
0‑3 to USL Dunkerque, 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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Le Havre AC for Kalidou Sidibé 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. RC Lens moved on, Sohaib Naïr reports back to EA Guingamp, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
EA Guingamp close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
$550.0K was the most the club would pay and Stade Brestois 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.
Jérémy Livolant and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what EA Guingamp can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around EA Guingamp they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$550.0K on the table at Stade Brestois. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jérémy Livolant was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
EA Guingamp asked and Viktoria Plzen 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around EA Guingamp people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 EA Guingamp, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kalidou Sidibé scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
AS Saint-Etienne pay $2.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadAmine Bassi falls out with a teammate over standards
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Angers SCO had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. EA Guingamp have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 EA Guingamp, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with FC Nantes 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.
“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 EA Guingamp, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and EA Guingamp have had the benefit of it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and EA Guingamp know it.
Diego García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not 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.
Add another name to the list: Angers SCO have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sohaib Naïr. The answer from EA Guingamp has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grenoble Foot 38 have kept their man, and EA Guingamp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Sohaib Naïr 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.” Nicolas Florival and EA Guingamp agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
Dylan Louiserre had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Stade de Reims were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
36 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
1 for Dylan Louiserre, marked 7.87, 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
4 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Michelin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Stade Lavallois made EA Guingamp work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Amine Bassi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Amine Bassi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jérémy Livolant is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Yann Vincent could afford to be generous.
Jérémy Livolant 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 Amine Bassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pau FC next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Yann Vincent could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clément Michelin 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 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. EA Guingamp told Jérémy Livolant something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine Bassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AS Nancy in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Freddy Mbemba is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutBreyton Fougeu asks for a word with the manager
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Amine Bassi 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.
Sohaib Naïr 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 dugout9 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Yann Vincent to a room that had heard them before.
After 12 games, EA Guingamp finally taste it again
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Red Star; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” EA Guingamp may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clément Michelin 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.
Gautier Ott 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yann Vincent after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” EA Guingamp have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tanguy Ahile, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Sohaib Naïr'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.
US Boulogne will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. EA Guingamp were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kalifa Coulibaly provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Amine Bassi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jérémy Livolant was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
9 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.
Jérémy Livolant 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 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Michelin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jérémy Livolant’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and EA Guingamp needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Freddy Mbemba is on it.
EA Guingamp have let the market know Teddy Bartouche-Selbonne can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at EA Guingamp the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Diego García 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 Amine Bassi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
109% of the income goes out in wages at EA Guingamp
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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Louis Mafouta is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yann Vincent after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at EA Guingamp has been clear about where Amadou Sagna stands, which is more than many ever get.
A 2‑1 win over Stade Lavallois, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clément Michelin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Louis Mafouta’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to EA Guingamp.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Freddy Mbemba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Alpha Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Louis Mafouta
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what EA Guingamp can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolas Florival is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
Gautier Ott 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yann Vincent after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
EA Guingamp close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 24 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Jérémy Livolant 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at EA Guingamp now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
EA Guingamp asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 EA Guingamp, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from ESTAC Troyes for Amine Hemia 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
EA Guingamp asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jérémy Livolant is a EA Guingamp player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
EA Guingamp 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jérémy Livolant from Casa Pia for $10.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at EA Guingamp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Bassi 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
EA Guingamp and Casa Pia have settled on $10.6M. 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.
EA Guingamp asked and Paris FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deal with Paris 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 Braga is saying, and nobody at EA Guingamp is enjoying the guessing.
Diego García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marc Carpentier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $172.5K — a club that wants Rudy Matondo enough to be asked twice.
$170.0K on the table at Paris FC. 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 EA Guingamp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
EA Guingamp 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Michelin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Donatien Gomis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Penarol have kept their man, and EA Guingamp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Stade de Reims, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alpha Sissoko 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.