Monaco U18

French Ligue 1 U18
13 Jun 2030
Thursday
Process
202 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Paris Saint-Germain for Ansu Fati 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.

Match

Monaco up to position 2

80 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Not going: Filippo Terracciano stays at Monaco

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Clermont Foot had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

Soriba Diaoune has said yes to FC Metz

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

Market

Romeo Vermant has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Ansu Fati falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

International break empties Monaco

5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

Squad

Franco Frías wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

In brief

Back issues
201 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Paris Saint-Germain for Mathys Tel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Franco Frías asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Charles Mertens wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Imrane Robert attracts admirers

The name of Imrane Robert has come up in conversations Monaco were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Jérémie Boga wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monaco know it.

The dugout

Vanderson has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco 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.

Squad

Alexandr Golovin retires from international football

“30 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 34 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at Monaco.

In brief

200 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Boardroom

Monaco are in Europe

Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.

Squad

Vanderson is named among the best

There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Monaco will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Market

Serginho is on his way

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

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

When it matters, Mathys Tel plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

Jérémie Boga told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jérémie Boga has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Monaco.

Market

Ansu Fati linked with a move away

The name of Ansu Fati keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

The manager makes Giuseppe Pezzella a promise

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

In brief

199 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Only the photograph left for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Yann Gboho gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

When it matters, Ansu Fati plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Folarin Balogun question follows Monaco around

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

The dugout

A door opens for James Abankwah

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

The dugout

Jérémie Boga knocks on the manager’s door

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

Boardroom

Monaco keep producing them

28 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.

In brief

198 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Monaco are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 80 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki hands in a written request

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

Market

Only the photograph left for Romeo Vermant

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romeo Vermant will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Boardroom

Monaco to lose Serginho for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Serginho has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Boardroom

Wages eat 102% of everything Monaco earn

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 dugout

When it matters, Folarin Balogun plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Mathys Tel question follows Monaco around

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

In brief

197 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Market

Arsène Kouassi wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Serginho wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monaco know it.

The dugout

Vanderson gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vanderson is on it.

Market

Denis Zakaria linked with a move away

The name of Denis Zakaria keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Jordan Teze knocks on the manager’s door

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

The dugout

A door opens for Giuseppe Pezzella

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.

Squad

Ekene Chukwuani has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Monaco that is a harder question to answer.

In brief

  • The dugout Mathys Tel keeps his manager's vote
  • Boardroom The Monaco board put their names to it
196 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Jordan Teze says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Market

Ekene Chukwuani has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Market

Filippo Terracciano is free to find somewhere else

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

The dugout

When it matters, Mathys Tel plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

Ansu Fati linked with a move away

The name of Ansu Fati keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Yann Gboho asks for a word with the manager

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

In brief

195 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Only the photograph left for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Home is on Franco Frías's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Monaco are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

When it matters, Ansu Fati plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Sadibou Sané

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

Market

The Folarin Balogun question follows Monaco around

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

The dugout

Yann Gboho knocks on the manager's door

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

Market

Jérémie Boga placed on the list

Monaco have made Jérémie Boga available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

  • Boardroom The Monaco production line keeps running
  • Squad Word from the training ground: Vanderson
  • The dugout The manager comes out for Jérémie Boga
194 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Monaco up to position 2

80 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

The dugout

Sadibou Sané keeps the receipts

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

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki hands in a written request

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

Market

Only the photograph left for Romeo Vermant

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romeo Vermant will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Jérémie Boga wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Boardroom

110% of the income goes out in wages at Monaco

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.

The dugout

When it matters, Folarin Balogun plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

193 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

33 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.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Match

Full time on the season at Monaco

Position 2 on 80 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Match

Monaco strike at the death to beat AJ Auxerre

There were 86 minutes on the clock and AJ Auxerre had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Monaco did not stop to explain themselves.

Squad

Ansu Fati is carrying Monaco

17 goals and a season average of 7.53. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

David Martínez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Alexandr Golovin signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Golovin and Monaco agree another 2 years.

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Ansu Fati falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

192 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 32. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Sam Amo-Ameyaw runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Ansu Fati is carrying Monaco

16 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

The dugout

Başar Önal says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Market

Only the photograph left for Ekene Chukwuani

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ekene Chukwuani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

200 appearances for Ansu Fati

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

The dugout

Mathys Tel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mathys Tel is on it.

In brief

191 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

31 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.

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Khalis Merah settles it late for Monaco

The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Khalis Merah decided nobody was going anywhere. LOSC Lille had no time left to answer.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki is on his way

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

Squad

Folarin Balogun is carrying Monaco

11 goals and a season average of 7.42. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Khalis Merah

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.

Match

Monaco find a way past LOSC Lille

LOSC Lille made Monaco work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

190 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

30 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.

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 73 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.

Market

Terms done: Ekene Chukwuani is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Orebro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

15 goals and a season average of 7.60. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Romeo Vermant

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romeo Vermant will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Krépin Diatta

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Ansu Fati falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

  • Looking ahead The big one: LOSC Lille come into view
  • The dugout Jérémie Boga gets it from the manager
  • Boardroom Wages swallow 111% of the Monaco income
189 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 29. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Market

David Martínez hands in a written request

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Looking ahead

Derby week at Monaco

OGC Nice next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.

The dugout

No place for Jérémie Boga on the big day

He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Monaco pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.

Squad

Serginho wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

Ansu Fati gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ansu Fati is on it.

In brief

188 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

28 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 28 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Market

Giuseppe Pezzella asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Ansu Fati is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.52 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Charles Mertens raises the bar for Monaco

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Market

Monaco turn down IK Start for Ekene Chukwuani

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Jérémie Boga signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jérémie Boga and Monaco agree another 2 years.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

187 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

27 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 27 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Player ratings

A brace, and Folarin Balogun takes the afternoon — 9.27

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Folarin Balogun provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Folarin Balogun is carrying Monaco

11 goals and a season average of 7.45. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Monaco see off RC Strasbourg

Three points for Monaco, 2‑1 the final word against RC Strasbourg in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel in the eights

A performance of 8.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

186 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

26 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.

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 67 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.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

15 goals and a season average of 7.59. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Romeo Vermant is on his way

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Franco Frías arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Yann Gboho

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Match

Stade Rennais end the Monaco run at 4

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.

In brief

  • Boardroom 103% of the income goes out in wages at Monaco
  • Player ratings Mathys Tel takes the honours
  • The dugout Mathys Tel gets picked when it counts
185 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Lamine Camara leads the rout of FC Lorient

4‑0, and Lamine Camara took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Player ratings

Lamine Camara scores twice — 8.17

Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Alexandr Golovin yet — 7.86

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Match

Nobody wants to play Monaco right now

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Market

Soriba Diaoune’s move to AS Nancy falls through

The deal that would have taken Soriba Diaoune to AS Nancy has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Monaco with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Market

Ekene Chukwuani is on his way

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

Market

Arsène Kouassi wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monaco hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

In brief

184 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Ansu Fati leads the rout of FC Metz

3‑0, and Ansu Fati took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Market

Romeo Vermant has said yes to Stade Rennais

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

Squad

A day Ansu Fati will not forget

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

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

Ansu Fati is carrying Monaco

16 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

The Red Star deal is off

Everything was agreed until it was not, and Krépin Diatta reports back to Monaco with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.

Market

David Martínez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

Monaco close the window on a squad of their own making

1 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Edoardo Corvi wants more than Monaco are offering

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

In brief

  • Squad A falling-out at Monaco
  • Match Monaco cannot stop winning
  • Squad A row about effort at Monaco
183 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 23. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 35. 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.

Market

Terms done: Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and US Creteil waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki hands in a written request

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

Market

Monaco turn down RC Lens for Romaric Etonde

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Only the photograph left for Soriba Diaoune

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Soriba Diaoune will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Home is on Jérémie Boga's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Monaco are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

In brief

182 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

22 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 22 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi is the hero from the spot

A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Edoardo Corvi: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.

Match

The cup run ends for Monaco

2‑2 against Olympique Lyonnais, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Match

No mercy from Monaco

Nimes will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Monaco up to position 2

57 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

A brace, and Folarin Balogun takes the afternoon — 9.13

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Folarin Balogun provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Terms done: Ekene Chukwuani is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and US Creteil waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Krépin Diatta asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Mathys Tel is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.59 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

In brief

  • Match Monaco make home a hard place to visit
  • Player ratings Gvidas Gineitis goes up and wins it — 7.90
  • Market Monaco say no — this time
181 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Terms done: Krépin Diatta is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Red Star waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Monaco turn down Paris Saint-Germain for Ansu Fati

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

Player ratings

Age has not caught Denis Zakaria yet — 8.15

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

14 goals and a season average of 7.55. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Soriba Diaoune asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Yann Bodiger gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yann Bodiger has just signed for Monaco, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati 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

180 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco tear Paris FC apart

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

Market

Monaco turn down Paris Saint-Germain for Mathys Tel

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

Player ratings

Ansu Fati scores twice — 8.53

Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki agrees terms with AS Nancy

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

Squad

The season belongs to Mathys Tel

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 Monaco have had the benefit of it.

Market

Filippo Terracciano puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Squad

Ansu Fati is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.44 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

In brief

179 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

18 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 18 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Squad

The knee: Arthur Avom Ebong out for 21 days

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

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Lamine Camara delivers — 7.90

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lamine Camara scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Market

Michel Mboula has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Sportivo Trinidense come back empty-handed

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

Player ratings

Ansu Fati was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Ansu Fati

11 goals and a season average of 7.40 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

178 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 17. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

The knee: Arthur Avom Ebong out for 29 days

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

Match

Monaco are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 45 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Player ratings

Both of them Mathys Tel's — 8.57

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

David Martínez hands in a written request

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

13 goals and a season average of 7.49 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Monaco turn down Sport Recife for Romaric Etonde

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

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

In brief

  • Match Monaco make home a hard place to visit
  • Squad Words at Monaco training over how hard people work
  • Match Monaco get the job done against Angers SCO
177 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

16 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.

The dugout

Takumi Minamino says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Mathys Tel is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.45 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Lamine Camara falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

Romaric Etonde attracts admirers

The name of Romaric Etonde has come up in conversations Monaco were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the Monaco support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Arthur Avom Ebong gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

When it matters, Ansu Fati plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

176 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

15 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Match

Another one collected away from home

7 on the bounce on the road for Monaco. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Monaco find a way past AJ Auxerre

AJ Auxerre made Monaco work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 132% of the Monaco income

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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Lamine Camara

Marked 8.13 — 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Jérémie Boga

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Match

Monaco at the halfway mark

Half the programme played, position 2, 41 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.

In brief

175 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Market

Charles Mertens wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Market

Michel Mboula is on his way

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Ansu Fati

11 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Player ratings

A masterclass from Ansu Fati

Marked 8.11 — 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.

Match

Monaco refuse to lose to FC Nantes

A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

In brief

174 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Marius Broholm sends Monaco through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marius Broholm obliged against Angers SCO. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monaco.

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 37 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 ratings

Both of them Marius Broholm's — 8.49

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Another one collected away from home

6 on the bounce on the road for Monaco. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Match

Nobody wants to play Monaco right now

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Only the photograph left for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Jérémie Boga wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

In brief

173 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Lamine Camara wins the derby for Monaco

Derby days make names, and Lamine Camara made his against OGC Nice. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.

Squad

The knee: Théodore Arnaud out for 23 days

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

Match

Still nobody has beaten Monaco

The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Lamine Camara settles the derby

Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Monaco and a story that will outlast his contract.

Market

Only the photograph left for Romaric Etonde

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romaric Etonde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

11 goals and a season average of 7.43 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Arthur Avom Ebong gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

  • Player ratings Nobody could get near Yann Gboho
  • The dugout When it matters, Ansu Fati plays
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
172 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Théodore Arnaud out for 30 days

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

Player ratings

A brace, and Ansu Fati takes the afternoon — 8.53

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ansu Fati provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

10 unbeaten for Monaco

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Monaco did not have in the autumn.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Match

Another one collected away from home

5 on the bounce on the road for Monaco. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Match

Monaco get the job done against Olympique de Marseille

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

Squad

Ansu Fati is carrying Monaco

10 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 129% of the Monaco income

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.

In brief

171 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mathys Tel

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Whatever happens, Monaco do not lose

9 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.

Market

Michel Mboula is on his way

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

The run is over for Monaco

8 matches without defeat, and then Paris Saint-Germain. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Market

Arsène Kouassi wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Ansu Fati

8 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi wants out of the spotlight

The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.

In brief

170 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Monaco make it 8 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monaco have 8 straight wins of it.

Match

Monaco are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

The dugout

Alexis Vossah says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

Alexandr Golovin, 33, rolls back the years — 7.93

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki is on his way

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Another one collected away from home

4 on the bounce on the road for Monaco. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Match

Monaco get the job done against RC Strasbourg

A 3‑2 win over RC Strasbourg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

169 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Mathys Tel leads the rout of Stade Rennais

5‑1, and Mathys Tel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Monaco make it 7 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monaco have 7 straight wins of it.

Squad

Mathys Tel takes the match ball home

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

Player ratings

Age has not caught Alexandr Golovin yet — 8.05

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

David Martínez asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Romaric Etonde is on his way

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Match

6 goals as Monaco and Stade Rennais go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Monaco and Stade Rennais, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati 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

  • Squad Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel
  • Player ratings A masterclass from Ansu Fati
  • Market Otávio has his eye on Europe
168 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Monaco tear FC Lorient apart

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

Player ratings

A brace, and Yann Gboho takes the afternoon — 8.37

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yann Gboho provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Nicolas Galazzi arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati 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 terraces

Monaco supporters have found a favourite in Sam Amo-Ameyaw

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sam Amo-Ameyaw 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.

Match

Monaco keep winning on the road

3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Player ratings

Sam Amo-Ameyaw was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

  • Squad 6 Monaco players away with their countries
  • Boardroom 108% of the income goes out in wages at Monaco
  • The dugout Takumi Minamino gets it from the manager
167 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Monaco

FC Metz will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati scores twice — 8.41

Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Lamine Camara scores twice — 8.06

Two goals and a mark of 8.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Monaco make it 5 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monaco have 5 straight wins of it.

The dugout

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki: that is not what I was promised

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

Market

Michel Mboula has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Monaco and FC Metz in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Folarin Balogun at his very best
  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Mathys Tel at his very best
  • Squad Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel
166 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

The dugout

Michel Mboula: that is not what I was promised

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

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Monaco — 7.94

1 for Lamine Camara, marked 7.94, 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Ansu Fati falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Jérémie Boga wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Match

Monaco get the job done against Le Havre AC

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

Player ratings

A masterclass from Mathys Tel

Marked 8.57 — 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

165 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

6 goals for Mika Biereth

The match ball belongs to Mika Biereth, whose 6 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Match

Mika Biereth sends Monaco through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mika Biereth obliged against US Creteil. 8‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monaco.

Match

Monaco tear Nimes apart

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

Player ratings

A brace, and Mathys Tel takes the afternoon — 8.74

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathys Tel provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Giuseppe Pezzella says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

Vintage Takumi Minamino — 7.81

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.81, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

David Martínez asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Romaric Etonde is on his way

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

In brief

164 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Romeo Vermant: that is not what I was promised

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

Player ratings

Age has not caught Alexandr Golovin yet — 7.80

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Gentian Selmani is on his way

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

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Ansu Fati sends Monaco past Olympique Lyonnais

It finished 3‑1, and it was Ansu Fati’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Monaco.

The terraces

One of their own: Sam Amo-Ameyaw

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.

Squad

Arsène Kouassi signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arsène Kouassi commits to Monaco for another 5 years.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel in the eights

A performance of 8.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

163 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Sam Amo-Ameyaw

Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Marius Broholm keeps the receipts

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

Market

Michel Mboula is on his way

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Paris FC take the points off Monaco

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

The dugout

No hiding place for Jérémie Boga

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

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Monaco

With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Monaco

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

In brief

  • Boardroom Wages eat 96% of everything Monaco earn
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Folarin Balogun has become a man the manager trusts
162 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Monaco

RC Lens will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki has said yes to Tours

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

Squad

11 seasons of Alexandr Golovin

374 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Monaco know what they have.

Market

Gentian Selmani hands in a written request

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

Boardroom

Window shuts: 9 in, 13 out at Monaco

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market

Charles Mertens wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monaco hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Olympique Lyonnais for Gentian Selmani 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.

Squad

Folarin Balogun stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Folarin Balogun and Monaco agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel 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

  • Squad A row about effort at Monaco
  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Folarin Balogun at his very best
  • Player ratings Mathys Tel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
161 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Only the photograph left for Romaric Etonde

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romaric Etonde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Ruch for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki 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.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Monaco find a way past Angers SCO

Angers SCO made Monaco work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Folarin Balogun was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.92. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Mathys Tel at his very best

Marked 8.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monaco.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati in the eights

A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

In brief

160 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Terms done: Gentian Selmani is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Metz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Arsène Kouassi has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Boardroom

A new deal for Vincent Schmitt

The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Boardroom

7 academy players handed senior numbers at Monaco

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

Market

One of our own: Stéphane Marty joins the Monaco first team

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

Market

Robert Aubert steps up from the Monaco academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert Aubert 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.

Match

Monaco come up short against Toulouse FC

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

In brief

159 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Terms done: Ansu Fati is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique de Marseille waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

David Martínez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Michel Mboula is on his way

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Jérémie Boga is a square peg at Monaco

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

The dugout

When it matters, Folarin Balogun plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

Romeo Vermant told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Romeo Vermant has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Monaco.

Squad

A season on the outside for Jérémie Boga

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Monaco has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

In brief

158 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Door shut on Hamza Igamane

Monaco 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.

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 69 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.

Market

Terms done: Radosław Majecki is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stade Brestois waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monaco is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

A move Jérémie Boga would have made for nothing

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

Market

Eyes on Ansu Fati again

The phone has started ringing about Ansu Fati again, and this time the name on the line is Olympique de Marseille. Monaco are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Gentian Selmani puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gentian Selmani

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gentian Selmani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Illia Zabarnyi and Monaco agree another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel 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

  • Squad Soriba Diaoune is a better footballer than he was
  • Boardroom 91% of the income goes out in wages at Monaco
  • The dugout When it matters, Mathys Tel plays
157 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Filippo Terracciano hands in a written request

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

Market

Radosław Majecki is on his way

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

Market

Sportivo Luqueno come back empty-handed

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Market

FC Nantes watching Romaric Etonde

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Monaco have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

Michel Mboula has improved at 26, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Arthur Avom Ebong

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

When it matters, Illia Zabarnyi plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

156 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki has said yes to Chamois Niortais

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

Market

Krépin Diatta asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Arsène Kouassi

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsène Kouassi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Stade Brestois for Gentian Selmani 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Real improvement from Sam Amo-Ameyaw at Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

A late step up for James Abankwah

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.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco 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.

In brief

155 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Ansu Fati turns Anderlecht down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Radosław Majecki has said yes to FC Metz

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

Market

Pedro Pelágio asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Michel Mboula

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Mboula will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Real improvement from Khalis Merah at Monaco

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Khalis Merah is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Late improvement for Arsène Kouassi

At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

The dugout

Folarin Balogun gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Folarin Balogun is on it.

In brief

154 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Imrane El Ouaroudi

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

Match

Monaco up to position 2

69 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Gentian Selmani agrees terms with FC Metz

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

Market

Eyes on Ansu Fati again

The phone has started ringing about Ansu Fati again, and this time the name on the line is Anderlecht. Monaco are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Radosław Majecki asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Monaco turn down Stade Brestois for Mamadou Coulibaly

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

The step up is real for Diogo Sousa

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

153 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Imrane El Ouaroudi

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

Market

Giuseppe Pezzella hands in a written request

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

Market

Only the photograph left for Radosław Majecki

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Radosław Majecki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Paris Brunner is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Mamadou Coulibaly attracts admirers

The name of Mamadou Coulibaly has come up in conversations Monaco were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

No hiding place for Yann Gboho

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

Market

Krépin Diatta told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Krépin Diatta has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Monaco.

In brief

152 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Imrane El Ouaroudi damages knee ligaments — 37 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Arsène Kouassi has one foot out of the door

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

The dugout

Alexander Sellegard says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Real improvement from Bradel Kiwa at Monaco

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

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

AS Nancy join the queue for Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki

Add another name to the list: AS Nancy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki. The answer from Monaco has not changed — yet.

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Denis Zakaria is on it.

In brief

151 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Radosław Majecki has said yes to FC Metz

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

Market

Ansu Fati attracts admirers

The name of Ansu Fati has come up in conversations Monaco were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Market

Monaco turn down AS Nancy for Sambou Soumano

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

Market

Only the photograph left for Michel Mboula

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Mboula will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Folarin Balogun has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

James Abankwah gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

The manager makes Arthur Avom Ebong a promise

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

In brief

150 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Paris Saint-Germain come back empty-handed

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

Match

Monaco are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 69 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Market

Loïc Tiamuna Lubaki has said yes to Red Star

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

Market

Business is business: Mohammed Salisu goes

Olympique de Marseille paid $4.9M and Monaco took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Market

Romaric Etonde hands in a written request

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Soriba Diaoune stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Soriba Diaoune and Monaco agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Monaco

With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

In brief

149 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Paris Saint-Germain come back empty-handed

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

The dugout

Takumi Minamino: that is not what I was promised

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

Market

Gentian Selmani hands in a written request

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

Market

Charles Mertens raises the bar for Monaco

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Sambou Soumano attracts admirers

The name of Sambou Soumano has come up in conversations Monaco were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Boardroom

The Monaco board find $63.1M for the manager

Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $63.1M well is entirely his problem now.

The dugout

Otávio gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

  • Boardroom Wages eat 89% of everything Monaco earn
  • The dugout When it matters, Illia Zabarnyi plays
  • The dugout A promise honoured at Monaco
148 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Mathys Tel is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.67 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Boardroom

Continental nights are coming to Monaco

Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.

Match

The small margins put Monaco out

Out, 2‑3 to LOSC Lille, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad

The season belongs to Mathys Tel

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 Monaco have had the benefit of it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Arsène Kouassi

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsène Kouassi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

David Martínez gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. David Martínez has just signed for Monaco, and for once the answer mattered.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Mathys Tel at his very best

Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monaco.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Ansu Fati at his very best

Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monaco.

In brief

147 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Only the photograph left for Thilo Kehrer

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thilo Kehrer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Folarin Balogun gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Folarin Balogun is on it.

Market

Folarin Balogun linked with a move away

The name of Folarin Balogun keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

The manager makes Arthur Avom Ebong a promise

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

The dugout

Otávio knocks on the manager’s door

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

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Soriba Diaoune’s exile

3 goals in 35 games at Sunderland — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Monaco updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Squad

Lessons booked for James Abankwah at Monaco

Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.

In brief

146 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 69 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.

Market

Michel Mboula has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Filippo Terracciano

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Mathys Tel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mathys Tel is on it.

Market

Mathys Tel linked with a move away

The name of Mathys Tel keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Yann Gboho has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yann Gboho has written the date down.

The dugout

Thilo Kehrer knocks on the manager's door

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

In brief

145 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Edoardo Corvi wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

Vanderson signs on for more

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Giuseppe Pezzella slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Giuseppe Pezzella is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

The dugout

When it matters, Denis Zakaria plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mihajlo Cvetković

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

Market

The Charles Mertens talk will not go away

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

The dugout

Thilo Kehrer asks for a word with the manager

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

In brief

144 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Arsène Kouassi is on his way

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

Squad

Mathys Tel signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathys Tel commits to Monaco for another 5 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati 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.

Boardroom

94% of the income goes out in wages at Monaco

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Gvidas Gineitis

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

The dugout

When it matters, Illia Zabarnyi plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Denis Zakaria talk will not go away

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

Squad

Alexandr Golovin has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Monaco that is a harder question to answer.

In brief

143 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Only the photograph left for Thilo Kehrer

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thilo Kehrer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Home is on Serginho's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Monaco are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

No hiding place for Krépin Diatta

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

The dugout

Folarin Balogun has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco 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.

Market

Folarin Balogun linked with a move away

The name of Folarin Balogun keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monaco say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Giuseppe Pezzella asks for a word with the manager

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

The dugout

A door opens for Yann Gboho

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

142 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 69 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.

The dugout

Krépin Diatta says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Only the photograph left for Michel Mboula

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Mboula will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Giuseppe Pezzella stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Giuseppe Pezzella and Monaco agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

The dugout

Lukás Hrádecký gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Mathys Tel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mathys Tel is on it.

In brief

141 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

Mathys Tel is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.67 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

No mercy from Monaco

AJ Auxerre will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Full time on the season at Monaco

Position 2 on 69 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Squad

Mathys Tel takes the match ball home

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

The dugout

Sambou Soumano: that is not what I was promised

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

Match

Nobody wants to play Monaco right now

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

In brief

140 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

24 goals and a season average of 7.64 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Arsène Kouassi has one foot out of the door

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

Player ratings

Lamine Camara goes up and wins it — 7.91

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Nobody wants to play Monaco right now

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Match

Monaco find a way past Le Havre AC

Le Havre AC made Monaco work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

One of those days for Mathys Tel

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.14. 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.

In brief

139 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Monaco silence OGC Nice

A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 4‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

22 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

A day Mathys Tel will not forget

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

Match

Monaco march on in the cup

Clermont Foot are out and Monaco go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

The derby has a name on it: Mathys Tel

Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Monaco supporters have already started telling it.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

23 goals and a season average of 7.62 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Monaco win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 105th minute. Clermont Foot will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Player ratings

Gessime Yassine runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Thilo Kehrer is on his way

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

In brief

138 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco up to position 3

60 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Francis Coquelin asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Folarin Balogun

16 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Michel Mboula has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Ansu Fati falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel beats them one at a time

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

Match

Olympique de Marseille take the points off Monaco

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

The dugout

No hiding place for Filippo Terracciano

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

In brief

137 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Match

Monaco run riot against Paris Saint-Germain

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

The dugout

Filippo Terracciano says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

19 goals and a season average of 7.57 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Lamine Camara stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Lamine Camara and Monaco agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The terraces

One of their own: Mathys Tel

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.

Match

Monaco settle it inside twenty minutes

2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Paris Saint-Germain spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.

In brief

136 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Arsène Kouassi is on his way

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

Market

Charles Mertens wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

Denis Zakaria stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Denis Zakaria and Monaco agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Ansu Fati

14 goals and a season average of 7.40 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Match

After 6 games, Monaco finally taste it again

The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against RC Strasbourg; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.

Match

RC Strasbourg take the points off Monaco

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

Looking ahead

Top-of-the-table clash for Monaco

Paris Saint-Germain 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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Ansu Fati was on a different afternoon to everybody else
  • Boardroom Doors closed at Monaco
  • Boardroom The Monaco board find $50.5M for the manager
135 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Monaco make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monaco have 6 straight wins of it.

The dugout

Gentian Selmani keeps the receipts

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

Market

Thilo Kehrer has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Folarin Balogun

15 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

Squad

Folarin Balogun reaches 100 goals

100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.

Match

Folarin Balogun sends Monaco past Stade Rennais

It finished 2‑0, and it was Folarin Balogun’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Monaco.

In brief

134 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Monaco

FC Lorient will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Monaco up to position 2

54 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati scores twice — 8.40

Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

18 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Monaco make it 5 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monaco have 5 straight wins of it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Michel Mboula

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michel Mboula will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Match

Ansu Fati among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Ansu Fati on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Monaco and FC Lorient.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

  • Match Monaco are at home on the road
  • Player ratings Mathys Tel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
  • Looking ahead Top-of-the-table clash for Monaco
133 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Monaco

Stade Brestois will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

A day Folarin Balogun will not forget

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

Squad

Mathys Tel takes the match ball home

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

The dugout

Thilo Kehrer: that is not what I was promised

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

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

17 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Radosław Majecki’s move to Stade Brestois falls through

The deal that would have taken Radosław Majecki to Stade Brestois has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Monaco with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel 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

132 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wins at Monaco

17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Market

Filippo Terracciano hands in a written request

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

Market

Michel Mboula has said yes to RC Strasbourg

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

Player ratings

Vanderson was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 28. 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.

Market

Arsène Kouassi is on his way

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

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 gone

That is the business done at Monaco 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.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

13 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

In brief

131 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Thilo Kehrer is on his way

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

Market

Monaco turn down ES Setif for Romaric Etonde

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Mathys Tel

12 goals and a season average of 7.46 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Charles Mertens gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Monaco see off LOSC Lille

Three points for Monaco, 2‑1 the final word against LOSC Lille in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The terraces

Monaco supporters have found a favourite in Mathys Tel

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathys Tel 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.

Player ratings

Folarin Balogun was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.65. 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.

In brief

130 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Radosław Majecki wins the shoot-out

3 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.

Match

Monaco through in the cup

A 2‑2 win over RC Lens, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 34. 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.

Market

Arsène Kouassi has said yes to Olympique de Marseille

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

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Alexis Vossah at 20 — 8.56

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alexis Vossah did not need any: 8.56, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Illia Zabarnyi 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 terraces

The crowd has taken to Alexis Vossah

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.

In brief

129 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Paris Saint-Germain for Ansu Fati was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Radosław Majecki has said yes to Stade Brestois

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

Player ratings

A brace, and Alexandr Golovin takes the afternoon — 8.23

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandr Golovin provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Not going: Paris Brunner stays at Monaco

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sochaux had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansu Fati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Alexandr Golovin the difference as Monaco beat Paris FC

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Golovin. 2‑1 against Paris FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Ansu Fati is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.29 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

In brief

128 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Thilo Kehrer has said yes to Stade Lavallois

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

Market

Paris Saint-Germain come back empty-handed

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

The dugout

Lukás Hrádecký keeps the receipts

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

Player ratings

A brace, and Alexandr Golovin takes the afternoon — 8.22

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandr Golovin provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Market

Bradel Kiwa has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

11 goals and a season average of 7.43. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Alexandr Golovin among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Alexandr Golovin on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Monaco and RC Lens.

In brief

127 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Gvidas Gineitis asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Serginho agrees terms with ABC

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

Market

Edoardo Corvi wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monaco hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

Match

6 goals as Monaco and Angers SCO go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Monaco and Angers SCO, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Angers SCO take the points off Monaco

Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Mathys Tel is carrying Monaco

10 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

The terraces

Monaco supporters have found a favourite in Mathys Tel

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathys Tel 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.

In brief

126 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Player ratings

Vanderson was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The dugout

No hiding place for Filippo Terracciano

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

Squad

Ansu Fati is carrying Monaco

9 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Serginho wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monaco can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco 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.

Market

Talks stall between Monaco and Giuseppe Pezzella

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief

125 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Thilo Kehrer out for 17 days

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

Match

Ansu Fati leads the rout of Tours

3‑0, and Ansu Fati took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

A brace, and Ansu Fati takes the afternoon — 9.01

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ansu Fati provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Giuseppe Pezzella arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zabarnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Charles Mertens

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.

Player ratings

Alexandr Golovin beats them one at a time

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

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Charles Mertens at his very best

Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monaco.

In brief

124 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Thilo Kehrer out for 24 days

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

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Khalis Merah at 21 — 8.15

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Khalis Merah did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Bradel Kiwa has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Gvidas Gineitis raises the bar for Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Mertens is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Monaco come up short against AJ Auxerre

AJ Auxerre left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Khalis Merah

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.

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

In brief

123 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Thilo Kehrer damages knee ligaments — 31 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.

Match

Folarin Balogun leads the rout of Le Havre AC

4‑0, and Folarin Balogun took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Takumi Minamino yet — 7.86

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

Nobody wants to play Monaco right now

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.

Market

Charles Mertens wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Lukás Hrádecký signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukás Hrádecký and Monaco agree another 2 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

In brief

122 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

The derby belongs to Monaco

1‑0 against OGC Nice, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.

Player ratings

Lamine Camara settles the derby

Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Monaco and a story that will outlast his contract.

Match

Monaco cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Mertens 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 terraces

Monaco supporters have found a favourite in Mathys Tel

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathys Tel 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 dugout

No hiding place for Lukás Hrádecký

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

Squad

Mathys Tel is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.23 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Takumi Minamino

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.

In brief

  • The dugout Mathys Tel gets picked when it counts
  • The dugout A promise honoured at Monaco
  • Player ratings Nobody could get near Ansu Fati
121 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

20 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Paris Brunner sends Monaco through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Paris Brunner obliged against FC Metz. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monaco.

Player ratings

Ansu Fati scores twice — 8.37

Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Paris Brunner scores twice — 8.14

Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Khalis Merah, 21, steals the show — 7.73

Marked 7.73 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Player ratings

Vintage Takumi Minamino — 7.92

At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.

The dugout

Romaric Etonde: that is not what I was promised

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

Match

Monaco make home a hard place to visit

11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Charles Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

120 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

13 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Monaco taken apart

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

Player ratings

Mathys Tel beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Bradel Kiwa has one foot out of the door

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Vanderson falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Filippo Terracciano gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Sam Amo-Ameyaw reaches 100 appearances

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

Boardroom

Nobody left the Monaco dressing room in a hurry

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

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Monaco

With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout Monaco keep their word to Yann Gboho
  • The dugout Vanderson has become a man the manager trusts
119 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

6 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ansu Fati beats them one at a time

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Charles Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

Match

Folarin Balogun the difference as Monaco beat RC Strasbourg

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

Player ratings

One of those days for Folarin Balogun

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.70, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel in the eights

A performance of 8.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Monaco lose Imrane El Ouaroudi

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

Squad

A step back for Lukás Hrádecký at Monaco

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

In brief

118 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mathys Tel

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

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Monaco and Stade Rennais in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Charles Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Stade Rennais take the points off Monaco

Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Folarin Balogun at his very best

Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monaco.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Ansu Fati

Marked 8.02 — 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.

The dugout

Vincent Schmitt answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Lukás Hrádecký dropped after a run of poor form

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.

In brief

117 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

23 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Ansu Fati leads the rout of FC Lorient

4‑0, and Ansu Fati took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

A brace, and Ansu Fati takes the afternoon — 8.36

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ansu Fati provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Diogo Sousa says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Vanderson falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Filippo Terracciano wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monaco know it.

Player ratings

Folarin Balogun in the eights

A performance of 8.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel in the eights

A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

The run at home goes on for Monaco

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

In brief

116 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

16 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco run riot against Stade Brestois

4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

A brace, and Mathys Tel takes the afternoon — 8.61

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathys Tel provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Mihajlo Cvetković keeps the receipts

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

Player ratings

Takumi Minamino, 33, rolls back the years — 8.28

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Only the photograph left for Bradel Kiwa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bradel Kiwa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Pedro Pelágio arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Mertens is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

No hiding place for Takumi Minamino

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

In brief

115 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

9 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Thilo Kehrer: that is not what I was promised

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

Squad

Denis Zakaria in a row with a teammate

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

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Alexandr Golovin

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Folarin Balogun

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market

Otávio wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

6 Monaco players away with their countries

The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.

Market

Francis Coquelin is free to find somewhere else

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

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Lukás Hrádecký

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.

In brief

114 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

2 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Mathys Tel was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Edoardo Corvi wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

Lukás Hrádecký in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

Denis Zakaria 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.

Loan watch

Sadibou Sané wants to come home

“I did not go to Olympique Lyonnais to sit and watch. I want to come back to Monaco and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Filippo Terracciano

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Khalis Merah is the division's best young player this month

At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Monaco will try very hard not to make too much of it.

Match

Monaco refuse to lose to LOSC Lille

A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

Player ratings

The game went through Alexandr Golovin — 6.99

Marked 6.99 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.

In brief

113 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

25 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A day Marius Broholm will not forget

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

Match

Marius Broholm sends Monaco through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marius Broholm obliged against US Creteil. 9‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monaco.

Squad

3 goals for Gessime Yassine

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

Squad

Edoardo Corvi keeps Monaco in it on his own

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.

Market

Stanko Jurić puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Hamidou Makalou: that is not what I was promised

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

Player ratings

Diogo Sousa pops up at the right end — 7.86

7.86, 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Mathys Tel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

9 goals as Monaco and US Creteil go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Monaco and US Creteil, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

In brief

112 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

18 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Monaco run riot against Paris FC

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

The dugout

Edoardo Corvi: that is not what I was promised

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

Player ratings

Both of them Folarin Balogun's — 9.47

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Only the photograph left for Bradel Kiwa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bradel Kiwa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Monaco training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Takumi Minamino is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Lukás Hrádecký gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The terraces

One of their own: Mathys Tel

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.

Player ratings

Mathys Tel in the eights

A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

111 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

11 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Mathys Tel in a row with a teammate

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

Market

Gvidas Gineitis wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

Denis Zakaria falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Yann Gboho runs at them all day

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

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Edoardo Corvi

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Match

RC Lens take the points off Monaco

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

Boardroom

Inquest at Monaco

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

Squad

Monaco are still strangers to each other

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.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Vincent Schmitt to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

110 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Monaco

Angers SCO will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monaco were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Khalis Merah at 21 — 8.44

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Khalis Merah did not need any: 8.44, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Radosław Majecki puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Monaco, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Mika Biereth keeps the receipts

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

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 29 signed and 16 gone

That is the business done at Monaco until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Charles Mertens wants more than Monaco are offering

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

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Player ratings

Ansu Fati was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

In brief

109 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

28 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Stanko Jurić asks to leave Monaco

“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.

The dugout

Gentian Selmani: that is not what I was promised

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Denis Zakaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Vanderson

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Serginho arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Squad

Takumi Minamino falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

A late step up for Mamadou Coulibaly

At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Monaco against Toulouse FC

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

The dugout

Marius Broholm gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

108 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Mathys Tel leads the rout of Tours

3‑0, and Mathys Tel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Monaco tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Both of them Mathys Tel's — 9.18

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Romaric Etonde agrees terms with Lokomotiv Plovdiv

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

Player ratings

Khalis Merah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18

A mark of 8.18 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Filippo Terracciano arrives at the club he grew up with

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

Player ratings

Alexandr Golovin was unplayable

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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Bradel Kiwa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bradel Kiwa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monaco the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Real improvement from Arsène Kouassi at Monaco

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

Squad

Tempers go at Monaco

Lukás Hrádecký 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

107 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Monaco baulk at the price for Noah Nartey

Olympique Lyonnais wanted more than $13.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Monaco sell Ritchy Valmé for $4.1M

Ritchy Valmé has left for Angers SCO in a $4.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Real improvement from Arthur Avom Ebong at Monaco

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

Squad

Lukás Hrádecký in a row with a teammate

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

Squad

A late step up for Ansu Fati

At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Squad

A row about effort at Monaco

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

The dugout

Folarin Balogun gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Market

Lokomotiv Plovdiv join the queue for Romaric Etonde

Add another name to the list: Lokomotiv Plovdiv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Romaric Etonde. The answer from Monaco has not changed — yet.

The dugout

Folarin Balogun has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco 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.

In brief

106 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

7 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Tanguy Nianzou will not be coming to Monaco

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at LOSC Lille is saying, and nobody at Monaco is enjoying the guessing.

Transfer targets

Monaco make their move for Noah Nartey

$11.8M on the table at Olympique Lyonnais. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Ritchy Valmé agrees terms with Angers SCO

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

Market

Francis Coquelin asks to leave Monaco

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Philipp Köhn moves on

Toulouse FC pay $7.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

10 seasons of Alexandr Golovin

341 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Monaco know what they have.

Squad

The step up is real for Mathys Tel

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.

The dugout

Bahmed Deuff says Monaco went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Francis Coquelin gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Francis Coquelin has just signed for Monaco, and for once the answer mattered.

In brief

105 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

31 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Folarin Balogun keeps the receipts

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

Transfer targets

An offer of $11.6M for Tanguy Nianzou

Monaco have gone to LOSC Lille 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.

Transfer targets

Monaco rebuffed over Tanguy Nianzou

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

Squad

The step up is real for Charles Mertens

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.

Squad

A move James Abankwah would have made for nothing

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Mathys Tel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A late step up for Edoardo Corvi

At 27 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.

Market

Angers SCO join the queue for Ritchy Valmé

Add another name to the list: Angers SCO have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ritchy Valmé. The answer from Monaco has not changed — yet.

Market

Toulouse FC expected to open talks for Philipp Köhn

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

In brief

104 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

24 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Monaco rebuffed over Thomas Jørgensen

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

Market

Monaco say no — this time

The offer from Malavan for Romaric Etonde was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Bradel Kiwa is on his way

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

Squad

Real improvement from Alexis Vossah at Monaco

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexis Vossah is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words exchanged at Monaco

Denis Zakaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Alexandr Golovin has improved at 32, which nobody expected

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

Squad

Charles Mertens falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Monaco will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Gentian Selmani

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

In brief

103 Edition

The Monaco Sentinel

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Monaco spend $35.5M to raise the standard

This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $35.5M has been paid because Yann Gboho is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.

Market

Monaco sign Mihajlo Cvetković for $10.3M

The paperwork is done: Mihajlo Cvetković joins from RC Lens in a deal worth $10.3M. Now comes the harder part.

Squad

Yann Gboho gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yann Gboho has just signed for Monaco, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

Philipp Köhn hands in a written request

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

Market

Monaco sell Jules Stawiecki for $2.2M

Jules Stawiecki has left for Stade Brestois in a $2.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

The step up is real for Arsène Kouassi

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

A falling-out at Monaco

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

Squad

Late improvement for Ansu Fati

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Transfer targets

Stade Rennais tell Monaco: Arnaud Nordin is not for sale

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

In brief