30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Abakar Sylla is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Høgsberg signs something — a contract at RC Strasbourg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at RC Strasbourg has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
LOSC Lille next, and one man in the RC Strasbourg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Diogo Sousa has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RC Strasbourg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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 The request is on a desk at RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mathis Amougou did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Alexsandro 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 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.
“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 RC Strasbourg, 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.” RC Strasbourg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
Alexsandro 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether RC Strasbourg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Something was said to Alexsandro Ribeiro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Match23 Oct 2027
After 12 games, RC Strasbourg finally taste it again
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Paris Saint-Germain; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at RC Strasbourg has been clear about where Pape Demba Diop stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
Abakar Sylla 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon RC Strasbourg had all but put away. AJ Auxerre will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Soumaïla Coulibaly has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at RC Strasbourg.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at RC Strasbourg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idrissa Sabaly 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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Sékou Mara
The dugoutRayane Messi has become a man the manager trusts
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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 RC Strasbourg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Diogo Sousa has his answer from RC Strasbourg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I watch every RC Strasbourg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at EA Guingamp runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and RC Strasbourg will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Joaquín Panichelli had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Stade Rennais were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 RC Strasbourg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giovanni Reyna. 1‑0 against FC Lorient, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
12 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.
“I watch every RC Strasbourg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Clermont Foot runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roger Pérez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutGiovanni Reyna has become a man the manager trusts
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mathis Amougou provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Rayane Messi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
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.
At 18 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.
RC Strasbourg asked and Toulouse FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Martin Adeline 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 offer from Stade Lavallois for Abakar Sylla 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.
RC Strasbourg ran out of time with AJ Auxerre. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Alexsandro 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Rayo Vallecano pay $35.1M, 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.
The offer from Montpellier HSC for Sékou Mara 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with AJ Auxerre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is going to Rayo Vallecano, the club has $35.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
RC Strasbourg close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 28 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.
Alexsandro 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 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 phone has started ringing about Karim Coulibaly again, and this time the name on the line is Pau FC. RC Strasbourg are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. RC Strasbourg have done the hard part with LOSC Lille, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Sékou Mara 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.
RC Strasbourg 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.
7.99, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. RC Strasbourg had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad30 Aug 2027
11 new faces, and RC Strasbourg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Add another name to the list: Rayo Vallecano have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Keito Nakamura. The answer from RC Strasbourg has not changed — yet.
Lucas Da Cunha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
6 academy players handed senior numbers at RC Strasbourg
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Charles Rolland is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benoît Bernard 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Denis Meunier is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from Paris Saint-Germain for Joaquín Panichelli 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Saint-Etienne have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg 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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at RC Strasbourg, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutDiogo Sousa asks for a word with the manager
“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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Karim Coulibaly 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.
RC Strasbourg asked and Toulouse FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at RC Strasbourg, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Giovanni Reyna is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and RC Strasbourg will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
$850.0K on the table at FC Lorient. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sékou Mara wants continental football; whether RC Strasbourg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The offer went to Paris FC 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Nanasi and RC Strasbourg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
RC Strasbourg offered $12.0K; FC Lorient 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg 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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Martial Godo has come up in conversations RC Strasbourg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at RC Strasbourg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 RC Strasbourg that is a harder question to answer.
$850.0K on the table at FC Lorient. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
RC Strasbourg have gone to Paris 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.
“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.
“I watch every RC Strasbourg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at EA Guingamp runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether RC Strasbourg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RC Strasbourg heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toulouse FC have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Mateo Del Blanco again, and this time the name on the line is Bourg-Peronnas. RC Strasbourg are listening politely and promising nothing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrew Omobamidele has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
Squad13 new faces, and RC Strasbourg are still learning each other
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Conrad Harder 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation RC Strasbourg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Dário Essugo is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Datro Fofana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around RC Strasbourg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from USL Dunkerque for Karl-Johan Johnsson 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jeyland Mitchell is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stade Briochin paid $220.0K and RC Strasbourg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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 Filip Jörgensen is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at RC Strasbourg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Olympique Lyonnais pay $6.3M, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Genesis Antwi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Lucas Høgsberg 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.
Add another name to the list: USL Dunkerque have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Karl-Johan Johnsson. The answer from RC Strasbourg has not changed — yet.
“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; RC Strasbourg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Giovanni Reyna is on it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Saint-Etienne have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
RC Strasbourg and Monaco have settled on $1.7M. 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RC Strasbourg heard it as anything else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Erwan Adonis 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miloš Luković and RC Strasbourg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RC Strasbourg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Conrad Harder 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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 easiest signature of my career.” Karim Coulibaly and RC Strasbourg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
29 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at RC Strasbourg now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and RC Strasbourg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miloš Luković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Datro Fofana has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Max Maréchal 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mike Penders trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at RC Strasbourg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RC Strasbourg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Da Cunha 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.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joaquín Panichelli signs something — a contract at RC Strasbourg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 38 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Up for the corner, and Dário Essugo delivers — 7.89
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dário Essugo scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Del Blanco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RC Strasbourg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Conrad Harder 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Roger Pérez could afford to be generous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabio Baldé will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RC Strasbourg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at RC Strasbourg who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
4‑1, and Keito Nakamura took the headlines on an afternoon when everything RC Strasbourg tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
A brace, and Conrad Harder takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Conrad Harder provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lucas Da Cunha 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roger Pérez on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” Roger Pérez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Dário Essugo is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RC Strasbourg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
At 19 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RC Strasbourg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Høgsberg and RC Strasbourg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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; RC Strasbourg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
15 goals in 38 games at Preston — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at RC Strasbourg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Conrad Harder 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around RC Strasbourg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 21 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.
Lucas Da Cunha 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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RC Strasbourg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aarón Anselmino did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 20 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aarón Anselmino 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Da Cunha. 2‑0 against FC Metz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Lucas Da Cunha in the middle of it, and FC Metz unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
7.80, 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.
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 7.87 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Del Blanco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RC Strasbourg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tyrese Noubissie is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; RC Strasbourg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. OGC Nice spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
13 goals in 35 games at Preston — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at RC Strasbourg updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gessime Yassine will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around RC Strasbourg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 RC Strasbourg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roger Pérez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Diogo Sousa will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Karim Coulibaly's mistake
7.77, 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
32 appearances away from home and 12 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the RC Strasbourg 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Roger Pérez to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
Position 17 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Olympique Lyonnais go through and RC Strasbourg go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
0‑3 against AJ Auxerre, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Filip Jörgensen: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and LB Chateauroux waiting with a shirt. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. RC Lens moved on, Karl-Johan Johnsson reports back to RC Strasbourg, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giovanni Reyna and RC Strasbourg agree another 4 years.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Conrad Harder 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at RC Strasbourg who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around RC Strasbourg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
RC Strasbourg asked and Universitatea Cluj said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
RC Strasbourg close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 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.
Lucas Da Cunha 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at RC Strasbourg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roger Pérez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
RC Strasbourg offered $38.4M; Birmingham 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around RC Strasbourg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
RC Strasbourg asked and EA Guingamp said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RC Strasbourg can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: JS Saoura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fabio Baldé. The answer from RC Strasbourg has not changed — yet.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diogo Sousa, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
RC Strasbourg have gone to Birmingham 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.
Position 18 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $18.7M has been paid because Lucas Da Cunha is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The paperwork is done: Martin Adeline joins from ESTAC Troyes in a deal worth $8.1M. Now comes the harder part.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Conrad Harder, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martin Adeline has just signed for RC Strasbourg, and for once the answer mattered.
FC Nantes held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. RC Strasbourg answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
RC Strasbourg and ESTAC Troyes have settled on $8.1M. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around RC Strasbourg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Dário Essugo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 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.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and LOSC Lille were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
At 21 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.3M — a club that wants Martin Adeline enough to be asked twice.
RC Strasbourg asked and ESTAC Troyes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
RC Strasbourg have gone to Grenoble Foot 38 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 phone has started ringing about Sam Amo-Ameyaw again, and this time the name on the line is Clermont Foot. RC Strasbourg are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 20 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether RC Strasbourg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Karim Coulibaly and RC Strasbourg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Position 18 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Dário Essugo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
At 20 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.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
5 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Karim Coulibaly is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roger Pérez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sam Amo-Ameyaw did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RC Strasbourg heard it as anything 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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Conrad Harder is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 RC Strasbourg know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roger Pérez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. RC Strasbourg told Keito Nakamura something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Samir El Mourabet is on it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
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 Sam Amo-Ameyaw is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hugo Colella’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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RC Strasbourg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A side in position 17 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Aarón Anselmino has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Samir El Mourabet obliged against SM Caen. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is RC Strasbourg.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Sam Amo-Ameyaw, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Conrad Harder 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.
10 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether RC Strasbourg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at RC Strasbourg can tell you which week it ends in.
Hugo Colella 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and RC Strasbourg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Roger Pérez to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 20 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.
Jeyland Mitchell 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at RC Strasbourg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
“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 RC Strasbourg know it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joaquín Panichelli signs something — a contract at RC Strasbourg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 20 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 RC Strasbourg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; RC Strasbourg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
12 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The offer from Paris FC for Samir El Mourabet 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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roger Pérez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samir El Mourabet has his answer from RC Strasbourg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Keito Nakamura provided it, and the 8.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, RC Strasbourg have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg 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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around RC Strasbourg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Samir El Mourabet to Monaco has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to RC Strasbourg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at RC Strasbourg 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RC Strasbourg heard it as anything else.
Karim Coulibaly 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lucas Høgsberg has come out of that comparison in the side, and RC Strasbourg have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
RC Strasbourg asked and AS Saint-Etienne 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 RC Strasbourg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Samir El Mourabet again, and this time the name on the line is Monaco. RC Strasbourg are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Joaquín Panichelli 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. RC Strasbourg have paid $16.3M for Keito Nakamura, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris FC have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
RC Strasbourg offered $6.3M; Paris Saint-Germain 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.
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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation RC Strasbourg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Roger Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
RC Strasbourg and Stade de Reims have settled on $16.3M. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RC Lens have kept their man, and RC Strasbourg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
RC Strasbourg offered $7.0M; Paris FC 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” ES Setif had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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 Abdoulaye Ousmane’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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at RC Strasbourg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
They sit in position 6 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
The offer from Almería for Joaquín Panichelli 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.
RC Strasbourg have gone to Paris 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.3M — a club that wants Lamine Guèye 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.
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.
$11.2M on the table at Al-Qadisiyah. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Almería have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joaquín Panichelli. The answer from RC Strasbourg has not changed — yet.
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.