From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Monaco go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Monaco and RC Strasbourg have settled on $11.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No deal for Diogo Costa at that price
Monaco offered $39.6M; Porto said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market24 Aug 2026
Monaco spend $23.2M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $23.2M has been paid because Hákon Arnar Haraldsson is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Match22 Aug 2026
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Monaco found something the first half had given no notice of, and FC Lorient could not hold what they had.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hákon Arnar Haraldsson has just signed for Monaco, and for once the answer mattered.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.65 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
An offer of $37.0M for Diogo Costa
Monaco have gone to Porto 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with LOSC Lille, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market17 Aug 2026
Folarin Balogun has left for Werder Bremen in a $19.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$8.9M was the most the club would pay and Sheffield United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Monaco signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
Monaco say no — this time
The offer from FC Annecy for Jordan Teze 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Metz have kept their man, and Monaco go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Leny Yoro 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. Leny Yoro is living that version at Monaco, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.7M — a club that wants Khalis Merah enough to be asked twice.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Manchester United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market10 Aug 2026
Schalke 04 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bourg-Peronnas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Olympique Lyonnais this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Folarin Balogun again, and this time the name on the line is Werder Bremen. Monaco are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Zakaria and Monaco agree another 4 years.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $108.6M — a club that wants Luis Suárez enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $69.2M for Luis Suárez
Monaco have gone to Sporting CP 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 targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $37.8M for Leny Yoro
Monaco have gone to Manchester United 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 targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Monaco have gone to Sheffield United 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Schalke 04 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denis Zakaria. The answer from Monaco has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
Monaco say no — this time
The offer from Algeciras for Yann Lienard 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.