Joaquín Panichelli 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.
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.
The name of Fabio Baldé has come up in conversations RC Strasbourg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
8.05. 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.
AS Saint-Etienne did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.3M for Irvin Cardona, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.5M — a club that wants Paul Bernardoni enough to be asked twice.
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for David Aguy, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Datro Fofana 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.
Work is signed off on a capacity of 27008. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mitchel Bakker’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and RC Strasbourg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Everything agreed with AS Saint-Etienne, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. RC Strasbourg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to RC Lens 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.3M — a club that wants Andrija Bulatović enough to be asked twice.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Panichelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at RC Strasbourg has been clear about where Karl-Johan Johnsson stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at RC Strasbourg, and both men came out saying it was fine.