From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Rennais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Olympique de Marseille left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 200% of everything Stade Rennais 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.80, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Esteban Lepaul, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Stade Rennais have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
The one thing Yassir Zabiri could not do
Shots: 6, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Sep 2026
Breel Embolo 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 Stade Rennais can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Stade Rennais's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stade Rennais has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Valentin Rongier 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yassir Zabiri, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Paris Saint-Germain, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Breel Embolo 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 Stade Rennais, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
Red Star go through and Stade Rennais go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stade Rennais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Stade Rennais
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Stade Rennais are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brice Samba 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brice Samba 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Virtus Entella for Bingourou Kamara 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Stade Rennais
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Stade Rennais are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lilian Brassier 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Issa Soumaré 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with AJ Auxerre leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Stade Rennais have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Brice Samba 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Bingourou Kamara has come up in conversations Stade Rennais were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 204% of everything Stade Rennais 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Stade Rennais will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Stade Rennais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Adrien Thomasson 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.73, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Monaco leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ludovic Blas finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Stade Rennais have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. FC Lorient drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Rennais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brice Samba 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The one thing Yassir Zabiri could not do
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brice Samba has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Brice Samba keeps the shirt for now, at Stade Rennais's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
OGC Nice paid $8.8M and Stade Rennais took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adrien Thomasson 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Djaoui Cissé and Stade Rennais agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ludovic Blas 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 Stade Rennais hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yassir Zabiri commits to Stade Rennais for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Adrien Thomasson 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Stade Rennais, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Stade Rennais heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrien Thomasson and Stade Rennais agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Brice Samba 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Breel Embolo 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 Breel Embolo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.