“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Pau FC 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Alberto Flores and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Montpellier HSC will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Alphadjo Cissé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Pau FC asked and Olympique Lyonnais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 The request is on a desk at Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Add another name to the list: Montpellier HSC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonin Bobichon. The answer from Pau FC has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pau FC have done the hard part with OGC Nice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alphadjo Cissé did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Anthony Briançon and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris FC have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A 1‑0 win over SC Bastia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonin Bobichon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It was not 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with OGC Nice; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Alphadjo Cissé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 17 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Eduardo Ribeiro scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Pau FC know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
In brief
SquadWords at Pau FC training over how hard people work
“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 Pau FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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. Pau FC will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Alberto Flores 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.
Add another name to the list: MC Alger have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noah Raveyre. The answer from Pau FC has not changed — yet.
9 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Alberto Flores was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonin Bobichon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Samba Konaté did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over AS Nancy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Julien Schmitt kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
8 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.
Half the programme played, position 2, 32 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The young player of the month award goes to a 17-year-old at Pau FC who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alphadjo Cissé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Mickaël Le Bihan
SquadSamba Konaté is the weekend's best young player
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pau FC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match21 Nov 2026
Samba Konaté wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Samba Konaté found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Red Star went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Position 2, 26 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 unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
Anthony Briançon 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samba Konaté. 2‑1 against Red Star, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tom Pouilly 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alberto Flores
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonin Bobichon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alberto Flores trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Pau FC that is a harder question to answer.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Valentin Liénard may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pau FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alberto Flores 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Pau FC did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pau FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alberto Flores was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rayan Touzghar commits to Pau FC for another 4 years.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
ESTAC Troyes next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pau FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugoutBetão left out for tactical reasons at Pau FC
12Edition
The Pau FC Sentinel
19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Samba Konaté, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pau FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over USL Dunkerque, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Everybody at Pau FC saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Anthony Briançon 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Julien Schmitt on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alberto Flores is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Julien Anziani’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pau FC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. João Araujo arrives at Pau FC with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Pau FC saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Julien Schmitt chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Yhirbis Córdova arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Nobody at Pau FC is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
Eduardo Ribeiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 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.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
13 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Julien Schmitt on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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.
Eduardo Ribeiro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonin Bobichon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Julien Schmitt after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 24 gone
That is the business done at Pau FC 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Moutanabi Bodiang is living that version at Pau FC, and it tends to show in the first month.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Julien Anziani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Alberto Flores arrives from Sevilla with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 45. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pau FC can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Paradou for Rayan Touzghar 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Union SG is saying, and nobody at Pau FC is enjoying the guessing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dender have kept their man, and Pau FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pau FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pau FC are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
$13.5M was the most the club would pay and Toulouse FC 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Joseph Kalulu was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Omar Sissoko did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deal with Stade Brestois is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Guilherme Santos is living that version at Pau FC, and it tends to show in the first month.
Pau FC have gone to Toulouse FC 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Daylam Meddah was one of the reasons people came, and $1.6M does not replace that by itself.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.5M — a club that wants Aron Dønnum enough to be asked twice.
The deal with LB Chateauroux is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Pau FC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juventus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Luzern keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$300.0K on the table at Le Havre AC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Pau FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alphadjo Cissé is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Philippe Garnier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert Michel has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Édouard Hubert has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Henri Roussel has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiema Gueye did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21 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.
Pau FC have made the call to Trabzonspor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.