Franjo: A Journeyman Story

Philosophy (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 120.5.5.5.5.5)


“OK, you’re hired” I say happily, standing from my desk and holding out a hand.


“Brilliant, cheers gaffer”, he says with a big toothy grin, also getting to his feet on the other side of the desk and very quickly dwarfing me with his stature. He takes my hand and shakes it.


I take him out onto the training pitch at the Centre de la Formation, where the lads that I’ve asked to show up for first team training are warming up. The others I’m planning on selling or sending out on loan. “Lads, this is my new Assistant Manager”, I call, gesturing for them to gather round. “A lot of you will probably know him, but for those who don’t, this is Peter Crouch.”




Crouchie grins awkwardly down at the squad, most of whom seem to recognise him. He's a very recognisable guy after all. "Crouchie and I are here to make sure that what happened to this team last year doesn't happen again. Every one of you should know that the very fact that we're here means that you all underachieved last season and now I want to see major improvements." I start pacing up and down the row of players like some kind of Platoon Leader as they listen on. "I'm a fair bloke. If you impress me in training you'll get your chance. If you take your chance and play well in matches you'll continue to play. Is that clear?" A murmuring of acknowledgement makes its way through the squad. "Right then. Let's get started."


To kick off our pre-season I send the squad on a cross country run. As an Everton fan growing up in the 90’s but only really starting to understand football in the 2000’s I always admired the way David Moyes approached pre-season training. He always worked on the 5 ‘R’s: Run, Run, Run, Run and Run some fucking more. The steeper the gradient the better. Yes it made players complain and yes it sometimes made them violently ill, but the benefits were huge. It built unity, character and determination and sorted the wheat from the chaff. At the end of the day those players would run through brick walls for Moyes, and there wasn’t a fitter squad in England than his Everton side. I like to organise my pre-season schedules in a similar way, starting off with some heavy fitness building to obliterate the Summer cobwebs, followed by some team building. How much we do of that depends on how many players I bring in.


The way I see it, I'm getting to a position in football where I can start to define myself as a Manager, so here's my philosophy: If you have a fit, hard working squad that are willing to battle for results and run their knackers off, you're already a step above pretty much every other team you'll face. If you can add some quality on top of that, you're laughing. It's a simple theory but it's been proved to work by countless Managers before me, so it honestly baffles me that so many teams don't adhere to it. To the best of my ability I've already implemented my footballing philosophy in my career so far. Sometimes I've been hindered by financial problems or work permit regulations, but I've tried to make it work.


Hicham Aidir is the first to finish his run. I expected no less as he’s fast becoming the personification of my ideals; Fit, determined, hard working and absolute quality to boot. In the South African Premier Soccer League anyway. His prize for finishing first is that he doesn’t have to do 3 laps of the pitch with the rest of the lads on his return. As the remaining AJ Auxerre players arrive back one by one, wheezing and dragging themselves around the pitch though, I smile. Because this time my philosophy could really work wonders. If I can achieve success at at a big club like this with my sensible approach, the sky's the fucking limit for us.


Trimming The Fat (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep121)

I've been looking forward to this Summer. Well, I often look forward to Summers, but I've been looking forward to this one especially. When I first arrived in Auxerre in May I had a very big squad and very little time to get to know them all. Now that pre-season has begun though I can take a step back and assess this rabble, identifying the good, the bad and the squad players and acting accordingly. There's a lot to do so I jump straight into it, and my first challenge arises early on with the impending expiration of several players' contracts.



I decide to give out 4 new deals, all to players who came up through the AJA academy. Firstly, I trigger a contract extension in Romain Montiel's contract. I want the option to play with a front 2 this season and Romain's a functional if limited target man, so I want to give him a look.




Adama Ba gets a new deal almost instantly. I didn't pick Ba in any of my 3 matches as he's an inside forward on the left and I feared that with him in front of defensive full back Faouzi Hikem we'd lack width on that side, which is why I selected Corentin Tirard as a winger instead. From conversations with my coaching staff though I've no doubt that Ba has quality and I want to actually give him the chance to show it to me.




Battling midfielder Abdoulaye Sissako also gets a new deal. I selected him in the 2 matches that he wasn't suspended for when I came in and although there were no fireworks in his performances, he's definitely my kind of player and I just have a feeling that he'll be an important player to have in the squad.




Finally, Lamine Fomba gets a new deal. He was suspended when I came in but I threw him in for the last match to replace Abdoulaye Sissako and he was solid. I'm still torn with Lamine between excitement, on account of his undeniable quality and physicality, and suspicion, on account of him being one of the main culprits in Auxerre's underachievement last year, but only time and performances are going to sway me one way or the other so he'll get a chance.




I decide against new deals for brothers Harvey and Evan Ndicka, the former of which played in our last match and was actually one of the best performers, but will see his chances limited with Kakuba and Sohna joining our already sizeable fold, Ibrahim Sangaré, who I played twice out on the right wing but whose questionable amount of actual quality is going to see him slide down the pecking order, and quite a few reserve and youth players, who I knew fairly quickly weren't going to make the cut.



As I continue to look for places in which my squad can be trimmed, Fraty Miezi throws his hat into the ring by suggesting that he wants to join Stade Brestois 29. Captiste talks him round initially, but when Brestois actually come in with an offer, I negotiate them up to nearly £700k and shake on it. Miezi has come up through the ranks here and is a pretty decent young winger, but I don't think we'll miss him.



Reserve defensive midfielder Kévin Appin and 'Too-cool-to-try' winger Jerson Cabral are the next out of the door, shipped to Turkish 1 League side Büyüksehir Belediye Erzurumspor and Greek National B Division side AS Anagennisi Karditsas respectively for a combined fee of around £100k. They're both no brainer deals to be honest.




One thing that I've not started properly bleating about yet (But trust me I fucking will be) is our academy. I've not mentioned it much because at the minute my concern is not bringing through the youth, it's hammering at the big flabby chunk of marble that is my first team squad with my transfer chisel, trying to shape it into a beautiful sleek statue. But our academy is fantastic. Famed even. As well as a fair few players still at the club, we've brought through some big names in World Football; Premier League Stalwarts Bacary Sagna, Younes Kaboul and Abou Diaby for example. Enigmas like Mohamed Sissoko, proven Ligue 1 players Paul-Georges Ntep and Djibril Cissé, the legendary Eric Cantona and the borderline psychotic Phillipe Mexes. Oh yes, this academy has produced some good 'uns and we've got plenty more coming through.



In a roundabout way I'm trying to introduce you to young striker Nathan Andre, who's currently probably our brightest academy talent. He's not even 18 for another couple of weeks but he looks like an excellent prospect; Quite mature mentally, able technically, and with very good fitness, Nathan's caught the eye of Ligue 1 sides Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille as well as Southampton in the Premier League. If he wants to go and one of these clubs puts in a decent offer, I've got no problem with him going on to play in a better league. Just in case though, I sit him down, have a chat and offer a new long term deal to tempt him to stay.



While I'm at it I agree new long term contracts with Captiste, arguably our best centre back and captain, 


Corentin Tirard, last season's top assister and starting left winger and Amine Chassaing, a promising young attacking midfielder/striker from the academy.

Sivasspor attempt to lure our target man and last season's top scorer Florian Ayé away to Turkey with an offer of up to £1.6M, but I reject the bid flat out and Florian too signs a new deal later that day.




The new season's fixtures are released and assuming I'm not sacked before the Summer, I'll be bookending my first full Ligue 2 season with matches against La Berrichonne de Châteauroux. They should be a team that'll allow us a gentle introduction into the new season as they're predicted to finish in mid table, so I'm happy with that.



When the transfer window opens we officially sign the players that the local papers are calling "The Santos 4". Isaac Sohna, Joël Soumahoro, Mike Kakuba and Hicham Aidir have already been introduced to the first team in our early training sessions, but now they're officially in.




You might think that bringing in 4 African players is a silly move, what with the Domino's Ligue 2 season having a "The squad must have no more than 2 non-EU players" rule. It's a logical conclusion to come to and it's the same thought that nearly made me physically ill in early June when I saw it, having already finalised the transfers of the Santos 4. Fortunately though after some light research, I found out about the Cotonou agreement, a treaty between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). In short, all of the Santos 4 count as EU players in France, which I'm sure we can all agree is a massive fucking relief.




In preparation for the new season I arrange some friendlies. As usual we'll start with matches against the kids and the reserves, followed by a trip to Luxembourg to face Berchem and then a home match against Belgian Pro League side Eupen. Then I'm back off to England, which will be odd. It's been 5 years since I jumped on a plane to Vellinge and although I've come a long way since then, I didn't think I'd be heading back this early. Leicester City will be extremely tough opposition and Manchester City Under 23's should probably be shown respect, but I reckon we'll have Aldershot. After that we'll fly back to Auxerre and host Paris Saint-Germain, because I do love an impossible challenge to finish pre-season.



Bordeaux are sick of waiting to see whether Nathan Andre will sign a new deal with us apparently because they launch a bid of up to £475k. I try to negotiate them up to around the 2 million mark but they won't have it and eventually our talks break down. Encouragingly though, Nathan wades in to signal his intentions by signing a new contract. He wants to continue his development here for a while before moving to a bigger club, which tells me he's got a good head on his shoulders. We'll get on just fine.




In terms of which systems we'll be playing this season, I'll be starting off with very basic ones as per usual. In previous years my systems have stayed pretty basic, but I'm hoping to be able to evolve them with Auxerre now that I have better quality players to work with, who might be more suited to a more attractive, fluid style. The first system I'm bringing back is Project: Meatloaf Mk II, the 4-1-2-3 that kept Auxerre up at the end of last season. We use it for our friendly against the Under 19's and the match is a straightforward one, as it usually is. Abdoulaye Sissako misses out with a twisted ankle and Godspower Tower is still out with torn knee ligaments, but the youngsters are put to the sword by 2 strikers that look like they're going to give me a real selection headache: Hicham Aidir, who scores the opener, and Florian Ayé, who comes off the bench to score 2 more including a penalty to give us a 3-0 win.



https://youtu.be/MH2Iuv8ZoRM


Russian Premier League side FC UFA then come out of nowhere to bid £1.9M for Ruben Aguilar. He may be the best and most rounded full back I've ever worked with though so I'm not willing to give him up without a fight. I ask for 5 Million and the Russians withdraw. Ruben's initially unhappy, but Captiste makes him see sense. Early signs are that the centre back is bloody good at his off-field captain's duties, which is fantastic news.


I always look forward to the First Team v Reserves friendly matches. They're extremely interesting as all 22 players are trying to impress you and are desperately trying to outshine their counterparts. I turn to Project: Meatloaf for this one. Not the Angrense style Project: Meatloaf though, I just look at it nowadays as a standard 4-2-3-1 system. For now. The match is very even but is actually slightly edged by the reserves. It all seems to be ending goalless until Hicham Aidir pops up in the 92nd minute to score the winner. If he can hit the ground running like this in the league, we're laughing. I'm not particularly impressed by Loïc Goujon though, who gets himself sent off in the second half. There's also a bit of a worry over Florian Ayé, who has to come off injured with a bruised thigh, but he'll only be out for a few days.



https://youtu.be/uNzrbpxMiz8



Over the next few days I complete my Continental B License and after talking to Mr Chabod, the Chairman, I start on my Continental A License, courtesy of the club. If I carry on at this rate I should have my Continental Pro License in the next few years, which would put me in a fantastic position in regards to the quality of clubs that would see me as a serious option.





Let me introduce you to another lad from the academy: Brahim Ferhat. He's a pretty versatile but technically limited striker, but has excellent pace, fitness, work rate and team play and those are qualities I admire. 

He's another one of our great prospects and Olympique Lyonnais are interested. They bid £275k to take him away but I reject it out of hand. I'd much rather keep him and maybe send him out on loan, as he could well have a future in my team. I also resent the sneakiness of Lyon's bid to get him on the cheap just a few days before his 16th birthday when he turns professional, which he then does.



At the start of July we lose a player that I'd not really bothered to get to know; Khamis Digol. Khamis had already agreed to join US Orléans at the end of his contract when I joined the club and it's a shame really. He looks like an interesting right back; 6'4", strong as an ox and otherwise decently rounded. On the other hand though, he's no Ruben Aguilar, so I'm not too bothered.




Russian club UFA really want Aguilar actually, but I really don't want to sell. They come back in with a £2.5M bid, but even though it's way, way more money than I've ever received for a player, I invite them to double it if they're serious.



For our trip to Luxembourg, I'm debuting a new system and one that I've been considering for some time. Project: Burnie Mk III is a 3-5-2/5-3-2 system: A back 3 with 2 wingbacks, 2 central midfielders and an attacking midfielder behind 2 strikers. It's a flexible system that hinges almost entirely on what I ask of the wingbacks. I'll sometimes need them to bomb on into the final third and provide support but I'll sometimes need them to stay at home and make up almost a bank of 5. It makes sense for us to use this system now because from what I've seen I have at least 3 quality centre backs and at least 2 quality strikers, as well as a right back who'll be able to do a job going forwards and a left back who's young enough to learn. I use Project: Burnie Mk III against Berchem's narrow 4-3-3 and it's a success, although annoyingly centre back Patrick Verbeeck is sent off for the hosts in the first half, so it's not really a fair experiment for my new system. Nevertheless, 2 goals from Nathan Andre, who's playing behind the 2 strikers, and a thunderbastard from Joël give us an extremely comfortable 3-0 win in Luxembourg.



https://youtu.be/GmJe-9R-ZEI


Alessandro Bassani is the next young star to attract the attention of the Ligue 1 clubs. He's a 16 year old left winger and he's extremely promising; Quick, agile, determined and hard working enough and decent enough technically to give me hope that he'll be ready to make a few appearances for us this year. Stade Rennais make a pitiful bid of up to £120k and I turn it down without discussion.




So at this point I think I have a fairly good idea of my squad for the upcoming season:


Goalkeepers: Xavier Lenogue, Bingourou Kamara, Anthony Gasnier



Defenders: Ruben Aguilar, Issa Samba, Captiste, Mike Kakuba, Isaac Sohna, Godspower Tower, Fabien Fonrose, Faouzi Hikem, Jérôme Mombris


Midfielders: Raf, Loïc Goujon, Lamine Fomba, Gaizka Basauri, Abdoulaye Sissako, Zoun, Adama Ba, Joël Soumahoro, Amine Chassaing, Corentin Tirard, Alessandro Bassani


Strikers: Hicham Aidir, Florian Ayé, Nathan Andre, Romain Montiel

There are a few players there that I've not yet mentioned, so let me do that now: Anthony Gasnier is a pretty promising young goalkeeper, although I worry about his aerial reach as it's quite low for a 6'2" goalie, teenager or not.



Fabien Fonrose is a 23 year old centre back who spent last year on loan with rivals La Berrichonne. He's fairly well rounded but I don't see him as a long term prospect if I'm honest. I just need a couple of extra centre backs for back up, especially as I'm trying out a back 3.



Gaizka Basauri is an interesting little player. He's an 18 year old defensive midfielder, or central defender at a push but he's 5'9" so I'm thinking not. He does have plenty of interesting characteristics though, he's full of flair and can smack a free kick to rival Juno at Santos, as well as being fit, strong and hard working.



Chassaing I mentioned briefly but let me talk about him for a second. He doesn't exactly fit my mould as he isn't what I'd describe as a "Fighter". Low determination and work rates are usually signs that a player is about to get sold but he's young, versatile, can run all day, has a few tricks and thunderbastards in his locker and is just generally pretty rounded. He'll get a chance to impress me at some point.



Anyway, I reckon we could do with 1 more player. You see, we have a natural right winger in Zoun, a natural left winger in Tirard and a natural left inside forward in Adama Ba. We could really do with a right inside forward; A creative left footed player who can cut in from the right and cause some chaos in and on the edge of the box if we want to play that way. And I think I've found just the bloke. I remember years ago on some podcast or other, I heard somebody say that if Manchester City can't bring Phil Foden, who at the time was the latest in a long line of "Saviours" of the English game, through into the first team, then they might as well close their academy down. Because what's the point? What's the point of having a local footballer of such staggering potential come up through your ranks if he's just going to be left to rot while you spend hundreds of millions of pounds on ready-made players? Flash forward to present day, 2021, and 21 year old Phil Foden hasn't made a single appearance for City's first team, although he did play a full League One campaign on loan at Bury 3 years ago... I don't blame Manchester City for letting him down. I blame the English game. I blame the Premier League, where clubs hold themselves to ransom because of the jaw-dropping amounts of money on offer for those who can stay up, or especially those who can break into the Champions League. If you give a chance to a young player and he contributes less than a £40 Million signing would have, meaning you only finish 5th instead of 4th, WHAM! There goes your revenue. You can't afford to hold onto your best players and no suitable replacements will join you, so you're on a downwards trajectory, making less money, and etc etc etc. So to avoid this, you buy ready-made players who'll get you where you want to be. The English have methodically built and nurtured a system in which, in the vast majority of cases, good young players simply cannot break through.



Wow. I didn't mean for that to get so... Ranty. My point before I went off on that tangent was meant to be that Phil Foden was once destined for true greatness, but a lack of first team football has stalled his development. If he can get back on track he could still be a top player and I'm willing to take a chance on my ability to make that happen. I'm also willing to break my own personal transfer record to bring him in. A £500k offer is accepted and I offer Phil a contract.



Issa Samba is the next player in demand and this time it's SPL side Hamilton that want to take him on loan. I want to keep him around though, so I reject the bid and make it clear that Issa will be staying with us.



Not long after, we get a call. Phil Foden's agent says that he's delighted to be given an escape route from City to a club where he might actually play football. They fly over and Phil signs on the dotted line, becoming my 5th signing of the Summer.



I'm taking a big punt on him here. I know he doesn't exactly adhere to my philosophy but he's still young, he's still got potential and at the very least he's extremely versatile, most comfortable as a number 10 but also able to play in midfield or anywhere behind the striker. I'll be looking mainly for him to play as an inside forward off the right as I mentioned before and I think he'll do a job. I get the feeling that he'll either be one of the very best or very worst signings I've ever made.



I think my squad's complete now and we just need to gel together and get ourselves disciplined in these formations I want us to use. Stade Rennais make a £300k bid for Bassani and Alanyaspor bid up to £1.1M for Zoun, but I reject them both. They'll both play a part on the wings this year.


Eupen are our next friendly opponents at the Stade Abbé-Deschamps and I see the Belgian Pro League side as a good challenge as we start to turn up the difficulty on our pre season. New signing Phil Foden gets a place on the bench as we line up with Project: Meatloaf Mk II. What follows almost brings a tear to my eye; First my prolific Moroccan striker Hicham Aidir nods us ahead from an Aguilar cross, then he doubles our lead just after the break with a clever turn and a clinical left footed finish. We're awarded a penalty 15 minutes from time and I scream at Hicham to take it with his right foot to complete his perfect hat trick, but he's a striker, and strikers don't tend to take any chances when a goal's on offer, even in a friendly. He opts for his trusty left peg and completes his imperfect hat trick. Still though. The bad news is that Lamine Fomba picks up a twisted ankle and will be out for a few weeks, but he should be back for the new season.



https://youtu.be/y0jWw3gLVYo



He won't be lonely in the treatment room though, even as Godspower Tower and Issa Samba return to full training with the rest of the team. Phil Foden and Loïc Goujon suffer a pulled hammy and a thigh strain respectively in training a few days later.




Alanyaspor are dead set on buying Zoun, our nippy right winger, but I'm still not selling. Their improved £1.5 Million bid is rejected.



The Coupe de la Ligue draw is made a couple of days later, pitting us against GFC Ajaccio in the First Round. They were in Ligue 1 only 6 years ago but have since plunged to the National League, the third tier of French football, and gone semi-pro. The winner of the tie will face FC Metz or Stade de Reims in the Second Round, both of whom are fellow Domino's Ligue 2 teams.




Touching down at Leicester Airport is a weird feeling. I'm back. Not back in Leicester, obviously, but back in Blighty. It's exactly the same as I remember it; Grey skies, grey buildings, grey people. Thick drops of rain start dribbling down my window and merging with each other as the plane taxies around to the terminal. As we make our way to the hotel I see so many people, so many of my people, all hiding behind black umbrellas and ignoring one another, even the ones walking together. My God, it's good to be home.


The prodigal son's return raises some eyebrows too when we take on Leicester City at the Kings Power Stadium. The former Premier League Champions dominate the plucky visitors but the Auxerre defence hold strong. We take the lead in the second half thanks to a goal from defensive midfielder Gaizka Basauri, who comes off the bench and is released through on goal after some good hold up play by Florian Ayé. Gaizka converts the chance and completes an extremely satisfying smash and grab victory.



https://youtu.be/eVWzxnDtKDA


Anyone wanting to put a quid on the team that avoided relegation on the final day of last season getting promoted, the odds are 50-1. We know we underachieved but the bookmakers have made us the 7th favourite to go up to Ligue 1 this season. My first thought is that it's a bit optimistic to rate us so highly, but do you know what? I think I actually like those odds.



FC Metz' Ivan Santini, who was last year's Ligue 2 top goalscorer, is evens to repeat the feat this season. In fact looking down the list, there are no odds being given on any Auxerre players outscoring the rest of the league. I smile to myself. These bookies haven't met a certain Moroccan striker I know yet.



There is an Auxerre player in the list of most likely players to be the league's top footballer though and it's not somebody I expected. Faouzi Hikem, the left back that I dropped after only 2 matches watching him due to his poor performances when I first came in, is 24-1 to be the best player in the bloody league. I've not seen it from Faouzi yet, but I look forward to being proved wrong.



I get a pretty frustrating phone call later on that morning; Alanyaspor have increased their bid again for Zoun, with an offer rising to £2.1 Million. Again I reject it, as I want him in my team. I'd consider bids towards the £5 Million mark though.



I suffer an unexpected bit of backlash from an Auxerre fans' forum after the club release this year's squad numbers on it's website.* Apparently quite a few of them are irked by Zoun having kept the number 6 shirt, admittedly not a traditional number for a right winger, but it's only 1 away to be fair. To be honest though I've had so much on my plate this summer that the squad numbers were pretty low down on my list of priorities and I just left the existing ones as they were. A quick glance down the rest of the list reassures me as I don't think there are many more badly numbered players, although my first choice goalkeeper having the number 16 shirt isn't ideal.



After that's dealt with we make our way over to Manchester City's academy to take on their Under 23's. Sadly Phil Foden misses out on a return to his former club, but as we've only had 3 days break since our last match I decide to give my second string a run out, because what could possibly go wrong? A thrashing. A thrashing even worse than Leicester City's first team gave us. I suddenly realise why Phil stayed here for so long, these lads are bloody good! We're not helped on the hour when the Kings Power goalscorer Gaizka Basauri is sent off for a second yellow, but by that point we're already 1-0 down and showing no signs of coming back. Things go from bad to worse when Florian Ayé picks up a gashed head, and then a second City goal finishes us off. 0-2 it ends.



https://youtu.be/3-1ict4VBSg


Alanyaspor are getting either desperate or annoyed at this point and they raise their offer to up to £3.1 Million for Zoun, but again I reject it. If they keep going like this though they'll have him within a couple of weeks I would have thought.



To finish off our dismal holiday in the North of England we travel over to Aldershot, the most surprising inclusion on my homecoming tour. I put out another second string side, giving players match time who need it, and we romp home in a thoroughly entertaining game. Florian Ayé scores twice in a minute but then gets stretchered off before half time, which isn't a good sign 9 days before the start of the season. Aldershot pull one back through Idris Kanu before Adama Ba scores, and then we're pegged back again by Jaidon Anthony. Ba scores again in the dying minutes though to wrap the match up at 4-2. It's a dominant display by us but it's overshadowed by the injury to Florian Ayé, which turns out to be a damaged achilles tendon. He'll miss 5-6 months. I certainly hope Hicham Aidir hits the ground running now because we can't really afford him not to.



https://youtu.be/IM1KyVbnHOM



But it's no use crying over damaged tendons, despite it being very frustrating to lose last year's top scorer perhaps for the rest of the calendar year. We've got a pre-season to finish and we're going to finish it in style. I welcome none other than Pep Guardiola to the Stade Abbé-Deschamps dugout with a firm handshake and a smile. Pep bloody Guardiola. I'm about to face off against a legend of Football management. Someone who's achieved almost everything that I aspire to. I don't let on that I'm bricking it. I play it cool. He puts an arm around my shoulder as the players warm up in the background and says: "It's windy today, yes?"


"Haha, yeah." I reply awkwardly.


Cool as a cucumber.


We aren't facing a full strength Paris Saint-Germain side, but we're still facing a good one with such stars as Renato Sanches, Stefan de Vrij and Gianluigi Donnarumma, and they have some more big names on the bench. Knowing Pep loves a 4-4-2 nowadays I set us up with a defensive variant of Project: Burnie Mk III. We're essentially playing with 5 defenders, 2 ball winners in midfield and an attacking front 3.

Amazingly, we take the lead after 35 minutes when Hicham Aidir turns in Ruben Aguilar's cross. In fact PSG don't really trouble us throughout the entire first half. The second half is a different kettle of fish though and we go on the counter after they come out swinging. Before the hour, Rolón Martinez drives home the equalising goal, 15 minutes from the end, Edinson Cavani heads the visitors into the lead from a Serge Aurier cross and 8 minutes later Bernadeschi's corner is bundled home by Lucas to give some gloss to the scoreline for the French Champions. I was impressed with our domination against PSG B in the first half, but the second half is an onslaught. Mind you, there's no shame in being beaten by the best.


After the match I sit down and chew the fat with Pep over a glass of chablis. For one of the best managers of his generation he seems like a nice grounded bloke. He commends my team's first half performance and is very humble about his own team's win. I quiz him about his time at Barca and Bayern, but neither of us mention City after his unceremonious sacking. We sit and talk as equals. Colleagues. Despite the defeat, it's an extremely good day.



https://youtu.be/1PsVSaJTBws


After our final friendly has been played and with the new season looming, I'm left with 1 last big decision: Who should captain Auxerre for the 2021/22 season? When I arrived Captiste had the armband and Ruben Aguilar was his deputy. From what I've seen of Captiste so far he is an excellent captain on and off the field and will probably also play every single match that he's available for, so he'll stay on. In terms of our vice captain though, I'm not so sure. I do like Ruben Aguilar but if I'm being completely honest I've had my eye on someone else for over a year. Last Summer in Lansdowne, I toyed with the idea of making Hicham Aidir the Santos captain, due to his leadership skills, determination, work rate and "Lead by example" attitude. I decided against it as I didn't know him too well and he was new to the team, hence the decision to give Komo the armband, but this year... New signing or not I think Hicham's ready to get used to the idea of leadership. He'll certainly be a captain in the future, perhaps for club and country, and I think the vice captaincy will suit him perfectly for now. He gets the nod over Ruben.



Phil Foden and Lamine Fomba return to full training just in time for our first match, albeit lacking some match fitness after missing a few of our friendlies. I also get a very interesting offer from fellow Ligue 2 side USBCO, who want to take our 16 year old striker Brahim Ferhat on loan for the season. They want him to play regularly too, so I agree. Regular football at the same level as his parent club should do wonders for the lad's development and as USBCO have been recently promoted and are one of the favourites to go back down, it's not as if I'm strengthening a direct rival. Hopefully. I look forward to seeing how he copes.



Hey, before I finish off this pre-season, I want to draw attention to a couple of my ex players, who I've noticed are doing extremely well for themselves: Firstly Joseph Ekwalla (Boo, hiss), who's moved on from Orlando Pirates after just a year to join PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie. My grudge against Joe faded when Santos ended up doing fine without him and to be fair he funded a lot of our transfer activity in that hugely formative summer of 2020. Santos will have also got a chunk of his latest £300k fee, which will please Goolam Allie.



Perhaps even more amazingly, I wonder if you remember Carlos Antunes? In a way he was SC Angrense's Joe Ekwalla; a promising young attacking midfielder who held a place in my first team from the age of 16 but was sold by my meddling Chairman at the time, Miguel Borba. He was initially sold to Vit. Guimarães but has since moved from there to Estoril, where he became a regular Liga Nos player, and then onto bloody West Ham! Ironically the same club that I loaned Domingos Quina from at the time as a direct replacement, although he didn't end up pulling up any trees. Antunes spent last season on loan in the Eredivisie himself as a regular starter for VVV-Venlo and is now back in the Liga Nos on loan with Arouca. I wish both players all the best and will continue to keep an eye on them. Maybe our paths will even cross again some day.



I receive another very interesting offer the day before our first match against La Berrichonne. Fellow Ligue 2 side Nîmes Olympique want to take Isaac Sohna on loan this year and would use him as a key centre back, as well as paying his entire wage and a monthly fee on top. I take a pretty long time over this decision as I think more than any other player, Isaac's development is going to need an extremely delicate guiding hand and a wrong move could prevent him from fulfilling his potential. In the end though I agree to the arrangement. Similarly to Ferhat, a year of consistent Ligue 2 football is something that I might not be able to offer him this year as we're well stocked at the back, and it's something that I think could really make him push himself and help him grow. It's now up to Isaac himself to decide whether or not he wants to go.



Here it is then. It's Friday night. The 30th of July 2021. The start of the Ligue 2 season. Tomorrow will be the 5 year anniversary of my first step into management, when I sent my CV to FC Höllviken Chairman Alexander Lundgren. Since then I've been relegated in Sweden, won a league title unbeaten in Portugal, beaten the drop in Poland, guided a struggling team to a cup final and almost a Confederation Cup place in South Africa, won a couple of matches in Liechtenstein and beaten the drop again in France. I've told Slaven Bilic to go fuck himself, become something of a Connect 4 master and ruthlessly tormented a dehydration-induced hallucination of my spirit guide and perpetual failure Abel Xavier. I've laughed, I've cried, I've kicked more water bottles than my players have kicked footballs and I've quite literally pissed myself in front of my drunk landlord in a vampire costume. It's time to begin my 6th year in football management with AJ Auxerre and amongst all of the feelings of optimism that a new season brings, I smile as a single thought crosses my mind, bright and vibrant: I'm only just getting bloody started.





*Commiserations to sammuthegreat and jakec91 from fm-base for having to look at a number 6 on the back of our right winger! The comparison to William Gallas and his number 10 shirt has been thrown about though which I think is somewhat extreme. Anyway, someone remind me to change it next Summer!


Domino's Ligue 2 101 (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 121.5)

We're not messing about now. The French Ligue 2 is a serious League for serious people doing and saying serious things. It's the biggest league that I've managed in both in reputation and actual number of teams, unless you count the Portuguese Championship which had to be split up into many smaller leagues. We've got 19 opponents in the league this season so we'd best get to know them.



Athlétic Club Ajaccio


From: Ajaccio

Ground: Stade François Coty

Last Season: 8th

Predicted: 9th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise


From: Auxerre

Ground: Stade Abbé Deschamps

Last Season: 16th

Predicted: 7th

Rivals in Ligue 2: ESTAC Troyes (Local), Bourg-en-Bresse 01 (Competitive)



Angers Sporting Club de l'Ouest


From: Angers

Ground: Stade Jean Bouin

Last Season: 20th in Ligue 1 (Relegated)

Predicted: 2nd

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Bourg-en-Bresse Péronnas 01


From: Bourg-en-Bresse

Ground: Stade Marcel Verchère

Last Season: 15th

Predicted: 15th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Chamois Niortais Football Club


From: Niort

Ground: Pôle Sport

Last Season: 9th

Predicted: 12th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Clermont Foot 63


From: Clermont-Ferrand

Ground: Stade Gabriel Montpied

Last Season: 7th

Predicted: 10th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Club Sportif Sedan Ardennes


From: Sedan

Ground: Stade Louis Dugauguez

Last Season: 10th

Predicted: 14th

Rivals in Ligue 2: Stade de Reims (Fierce, Local), FC Metz (Local), ESTAC Troyes (Local), Valenciennes FC (Historic)



Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champaigne


From: Troyes

Ground: Stade de l'Aube

Last Season: 6th

Predicted: 6th

Rivals in Ligue 2: Stade de Reims (Local), CS Sedan Ardennes (Local), AJ Auxerre (Local)



Football Club de Metz


From: Longeville-lès-Metz

Ground: Stade Saint-Symphoriem

Last Season: 4th

Predicted: 3rd

Rivals in Ligue 2: RC Strasbourg Alsace (Local)



Groupe Sportif Consolat


From: Marseille

Ground: Stade de la Martine

Last Season: 18th

Predicted: 18th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



La Berrichonne de Châteauroux


From: Châteauroux

Ground: Stade Gaston Petit

Last Season: 17th

Predicted: 11th

Rivals in Ligue 2: US Orléans Loiret Football (Local), Chamois Niortais FC (Local)



Nîmes Olympique


From: Nîmes

Ground: Stade des Costières

Last Season: 12th

Predicted: 8th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace


From: Strasbourg

Ground: Stade de La Meinau

Last Season: 13th

Predicted: 13th

Rivals in Ligue 2: FC Metz (Local)



Red Star Football Club


From: Paris

Ground: Stade Jean-Bouin

Last Season: 14th

Predicted: 16th

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



Stade de Reims


From: Reims

Ground: Stade Auguste Delaune

Last Season: 19th in Ligue 1 (Relegated)

Predicted: 4th

Rivals in Ligue 2: CS Sedan Ardennes (Local)



Stade Malherbe Caen


From: Caen

Ground: Stade Michel d'Ornano

Last Season: 18th in Ligue 1 (Relegated)

Predicted: 1st

Rivals in Ligue 2: N/A



US Créteil-Lusitanos


From: Créteil

Ground: Stade Dominique Duvauchelle

Last Season: 2nd in French National (Promoted)

Predicted: 19th

Rivals in Ligue 2: Red Star FC



US Orléans Loiret Football


From: Saint-Ouen

Ground: Stade Bauer

Last Season: 11th

Predicted: 17th

Rivals in Ligue 2: La Berrichonne (Local)



US Boulogne Côte d'Opale


From: Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Ground: Stadium Lille Métropole

Last Season: 1st in French National (Promoted)

Predicted: 20th

Rivals in Ligue 2: Valenciennes FC



Valenciennes Football Club


From: Valenciennes

Ground: Stade du Hainaut

Last Season: 5th

Predicted: 5th

Rivals in Ligue 2: USBCO (Local), CS Sedan Ardennes (Historic)



I'm encouraged that we're predicted to finish 7th and I'd certainly take that right now, but I do worry that I've got largely the same squad that's finished 16th 2 years in a row, albeit with a couple of quality improvements. I'm certainly interested to see whether I can be the one to make these players actually realise their potential or whether they're just going to sit by and let me fall by the wayside like the last poor sap. Enough talk though, we'll never know unless we get this show on the road.


As the French say, Allons-y!


No Words (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep122)

I think it’s fair to say that our pre-season’s been mixed. We’ve done some good work in the transfer market so far and had some testing friendly matches where we’ve not only gained familiarity in my new systems but really pushed ourselves against tough opposition. On the other hand I could've done without losing Florian Ayé for 6 months and Phil Foden isn't as integrated as I'd like him to be as his pulled hamstring has kept him out of most of our friendlies. Nevertheless, today is the day that we finally get to put everything we’ve been working on into practice.



We’ll start this season as we finished the last - With a simple 4-1-2-3 named Project: Meatloaf Mk II. Xavier Lenogue will continue to be between the sticks for the time being at least, as he performed well there after my arrival. Mike Kakuba lines up for his debut on the left side of central defence alongside Ruben Aguilar, Captiste and Faouzi Hikem. Deep fried demon Loïc Goujon will be our holding man, with the enigmatic Lamine Fomba in front of him as a box to box midfielder next to attacking playmaker Joël Soumahoro, another debutant. I’m going to play with wingers today and I want to save Zoun as an impact sub like I did after my arrival last season, so Adama Ba starts on the right and Corentin Tirard takes the left, with vice captain and 3rd debutant Hicham Aidir leading the line. The referee blows his whistle to begin the 2021/22 Ligue 2 season.



13 minutes in Aidir channels his inner Messi, dribbling into the La Berrichonne half and into the final third while holding their midfielder Castro at arm’s length. He dodges Castro’s challenge, cuts back across him onto his left foot, jinks past the poor lad once again and shoots with power. Delle makes the save, sending the ball out for a corner, but it’s a fantastic start from Hicham. He’ll have the fans onside in no time if he carries on like that.


La Berrichonne aren’t exactly threatening in the opening stages but they are having the lion’s share of possession, so we go on the counter just over quarter of an hour in. Almost instantly we put together a very slick passing move that ends up with the ball at Aidir’s feet again. He holds it up and slips in Lamine Fomba, who takes a shot but Delle catches it fairly easily.


After that the first half is largely devoid of action. In the 42nd minute with half time looming, I get the message out to go a bit narrower and play a bit quicker in the hopes that we’ll be able to strangle La Berrichonne’s patient passing moves and get the ball up to Aidir quicker. Before the break we do get the ball to him and he powers forwards towards the box. The striker’s a man possessed today, dodging a couple of challenges before letting fly from 20 yards. The shot has power but no accuracy though and the ball flies wide.


After the break I issue instructions to close down more and mark tighter, to try and put some pressure on our opposition and get us winning the ball back higher up the pitch. On the hour mark though we're still deadlocked so I bring on Zoun for Tirard, who's had a disappointingly quiet day. Zoun'll take the right wing and Ba will cut in from the left.


5 minutes later, Lenogue thumps a goal kick forwards and Aidir nods it on. Zoun sets off at a sprint, causing panic in the defence. Exactly what I was looking for. The rapid Burkinabe winger bursts past his marker with the ball and runs it into the 6 yard box, but he gives himself too tight an angle and shoots across the face of goal, wide of the far post.


A couple of minutes later our free kick breaks down and is cleared by La Berrichonne. As they look to start a counter attack though Loïc Goujon wins the ball and pumps it back over the outrushing defence for Hicham Aidir, who's played onside by their left back. He takes the ball down, dribbles into the box and blasts it into the far corner of the net, bagging himself a debut goal and giving us the lead. Good lad.


With 10 minutes to play, Adama Ba cuts inside from the left and passes to Aidir on the edge of the box. He takes a touch and pulls the trigger just in time to avoid a sliding tackle from a defender. The ball finds the bottom corner again, rippling the back of the net as the majestic Moroccan peels away in celebration. I have no words. Maybe I'll never need to buy another striker again. I bring off Ba and replace him with debutant Phil Foden to give him some match fitness. He'll slot in as a left winger.


After a couple of minutes Aidir slips the ball into the box for Zoun, who's coming in from the right wing. He gets a shot in but the keeper rushes out and saves well. In the dying minutes Zoun gets loose again when Goujon gives him the ball in our half. He drives down the wing hugging the touchline and gets level with the box when Obiang puts in a tackle to send the ball rolling away into the area. Zoun rallies and gets to the loose ball first though and dribbles inside, before firing in our 3rd goal of the day. Stick a fork in this match, lads.



https://youtu.be/Wzi-OuGGvwY


A 3-0 away win is what I would describe as a fucking fantastic start to a new season. It wasn't a complete performance by any means but the second half was brilliant. Aidir's off the mark and Zoun's shown me some proper quality and justified my plan of keeping him on the bench, saving him for the latter stages. Add that to superb showings from debutant centre back Kakuba and holding man Goujon as well as good performances throughout almost the whole team and this has been an incredibly encouraging match.




As encouraging a performance as it was though, the transfer window's still open and I'm still looking at the balance of the squad. As it looks as though Isaac Sohna's going to be spending the season over in Nîmes I reckon that leaves us with 3 centre backs of sufficient quality that I'd actually trust to start for us, along with a couple of back ups. Therefore I'm dipping my toes into the market probably for the last time to sign another. After consulting with my scouts and watching some video reports I decide on former Paris Saint-Germain and now frustrated Borussia Mönchengladbach defender Mamadou Doucouré. He's a good height at 6'1" and is very well rounded and technically, mentally and physically strong. He's also probably quicker and better on the ball than any of our other centre backs and is left footed, all of which could come in handy.




Over the next few days we receive more offers for some of our players too: AS Nancy Lorraine's £300k offer for left winger Alessandro Bassani is rejected, along with Partizan Belgrade's £2.1 Million bid for Ruben Aguilar.

Another bid that comes in is for yet another of our promising youngsters and probably one of the most promising. Benjamin Valette is a 17 year old defensive midfielder very much in the Franjo mould of being physical, determined and hard working. Don't let his ginger mohawk fool you, he's a hell of a talent. 

Olympique Marseille approach us with a £600k bid but I turn it down as I value him quite a lot higher.


Benjamin's not best pleased at my valuation of him. After sitting down with him and talking it through, it seems like his heart is set on a move away. I don't want a player who doesn't want to play for me at the club, so I tell him he can leave. I won't let him go on the cheap though, I reckon he can go right to the top and players of that talent don't come at bargain prices. In other news though, 2 of the Santos 4 have made it into the Domino's Ligue 2 Team of the Week - Mike Kakuba and Hicham Aidir are also joined by Captiste and Loïc Goujon in being recognised for their fantastic performances against La Berrichonne.



More transfer news follows: Young striker Brahim Ferhat completes his season long loan to USBCO, but I reject AS Nancy Lorraine's bid for Alessandro Bassani.


And the offers just keep coming in, which I'm quickly finding to be an annoying byproduct of having a fantastic academy. LOSC and Stade Rennais both table bids in the region of £100k for 16 year old striker Abdoulaye Traoré, another player in the Franjo mould. He's also pretty quick and very skilful. I reject the bids as he looks like a talent and £100k is nowhere near what I'd let him go for.




Then it's Marseille's turn to come knocking. A £250k bid is submitted for our 15 year old attacking midfielder Robin Faivre. Like Traoré he's quick and extremely skilful on the ball, so I reject the offer. If he's worth £250k at 15 I think it's worth us holding onto him for a year or 2 at least.




Our next match is at home. We welcome Valenciennes to Stade Abbé-Deschamps, a side that also won their first match 3-0 against newly relegated Stade de Reims. They deserve a massive amount of praise for a very surprising result. Early as it might be, we're top of the league but Valenciennes are in 2nd, behind us only on alphabetical order. Both teams' confidence will be high so it should be an interesting game.



In their first match they lined up with a good old fashioned 4-4-2 so I'll be giving a competitive debut to Project: Burnie Mk III so that our 3 defenders can comfortably take care of their 2 strikers. I'm also making a couple of personnel changes: Isaac Sohna will come in for his debut and Nathan Andre also starts while Adama Ba and Corentin Tirard make way as we won't be using wingers. Sohna will man mark their pacy striker Nuno da Costa and Mike Kakuba will take Edouard Butin, while Captiste acts as the ball player between them, mopping up loose balls and linking up with central midfielders Fomba and Goujon. Wing backs Aguilar and Hikem will be cautious, staying back to take care of Valenciennes' 2 wingers but also coming forward to support attacks when they can. We've got plenty of legs in the centre of midfield and Joël will play behind Aidir and Andre in quite a fluid front 3.



After a cautious start to the match we win a corner just before the 20 minute mark. Faouzi Hikem swings the ball into the centre and Goujon heads it goalwards. As the keeper makes his dive for the ball, Sohna rises at the near post to head it across goal in the opposite direction, but he can't get it on target. We have a bit of a scare 5 minutes before half time when Xavier Lenogue collides with a striker and winds up with a deep cut on his arm, but after some treatment he stays on.


We go in for the break with the scores tied at 0-0 and I encourage Auxerre to keep plugging away. 10 minutes into the second half we get a great chance when Joël spots Aidir's run and plays him in, but the striker's shot is well saved by Kocik and the ball goes out for another corner, which comes to nothing.


With 20 minutes to go I bring on Zoun to replace Joël. In an attempt to find the breakthrough we're going to an Antonio-Conte-esque 3-2-2-2-1, with Zoun and Andre going out onto the wings to add extra width. We also go more direct in an attempt to get us attacking with a bit more pace. 10 minutes on we're still goalless and I bring on young Chassaing for Goujon to add a bit more creativity into midfield.


In the last couple of minutes, Osei-Berkoe cuts in from the left wing and takes a pot shot at our goal from 25 yards, which gives me a very brief panic attack before the ball flies over the bar. We enter injury time and the match seems destined to end as a bore draw, until Aidir drags a centre back out of position and creates space for Zoun to run into. Andre spots him and fires a pass into his path, which Zoun takes in his stride. The winger runs through on goal and slips the ball into the bottom corner. There's not even any time for Valenciennes to come back at us as the ref's whistle blows almost straight after kick off. Bloody magnificent.



https://youtu.be/INi_iQbb_Ks


That's a massive result for us. Valenciennes came into this match on a high after demolishing a team that's come down from Ligue 1 and just like La Berrichonne, we completely nullified them. Truth be told I would have been happy enough with that and a goalless draw, but we've sneaked all 3 points. I know it's early days but I think this Auxerre side might have even more potential than I thought.


Yeah

Nerve (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep123)


It's with mixed feelings that I watch Isaac Sohna's taxi pull away from the Centre de Formation. I'm 90% sure I've made the right decision in sending him on loan to Nîmes, but that 10% is niggling me. He gave a decent account of himself against Valenciennes after all. Nevertheless, it's a done deal. Sohna's gone and it's up to him to train well, perform well and develop. Good luck, Isaac.



Another player on the move is 18 year old striker Serge Bamba. He's pretty quick, fit and tricky with good technique and a free kick or 2 in his locker. Swiss Challenge League side Le Mont LS want him to be a regular starter for them this season and I accept their offer. Hopefully he too will benefit from a year away playing regular football.




Yet another player off on loan is 18 year old American full back Ed Bolton. He's an interesting player and strikes me as a future versatile squad player as he can hold his own physically, works hard, has a good team ethic and can play with either foot and at either full back position.



There's a reason that we have several Americans like Ed coming through our ranks, having grown up in Texas or Colarado, and that's because we have deep roots in both of those States, having been linked with both Colorado Rush and Texas Rush for the last 12 years. We get the first option on both clubs' players and we also bring some of their junior players over to gain experience in a top French academy, with the happy byproduct of some of them breaking through into our Under 19's.



Anyway, Ed's attracted a tremendous amount of interest from his home nation but I'm sending him to FC Chambly-Oise in the French National League. American players, unlike most African players, count towards the Non-EU player limit so it's in my interest to keep him in France so that he can continue to work towards citizenship. Plus, Chambly-Oise are one of the favourites for promotion so if they can pull it off that'll be good experience for Ed.



With a heavy heart I also agree a fee with Marseille for Benjamin Valette, our incredibly talented teenage defensive midfielder. Their initial offer is around £900k but I want £2M for him. We compromise in the end, with Marseille paying £500k up front and another £2M over the next 2 years. I don't plan on spending much more in this window anyway so the staggered payments don't bother me. We also put in a clause that'll give us 50% of his next fee, because obviously.



Amidst all the outgoings, we do manage to bring in Mamadou Doucouré though. I'm very happy with this deal as the Senegalese International has got tremendous pedigree and has the quality to be in or around our first team.




We reject a few more offers, like Nancy Lorraine's £450k bid for winger Alessandro Bassani and LOSC's and Stade Rennais' barely improved bids for skilful striker Abdoulaye Traoré.


And before my first Coupe de la Ligue match, Bamba's loan move to Le Mont and Valette's permanent transfer to Marseille are both tied up. It's a shame to lose Benjamin but I think we've at least done some good business there.


Anyway, as I say it's time for us to start our Coupe de la Ligue campaign. GFC Ajaccio are our opponents today, a semi pro side in the French National League. It may feel like I've been here for a while at this point but I still need to get to know some of these players and this match presents the perfect opportunity.




As per my usual first season mentality, I'm not overly fussed about this cup competition and will be fielding the players that either need to bed in, that haven't had a real chance under me so far, or that I've been less than impressed with and want them to get a kick start against easier opposition. We'll be playing a fluid attacking variant of Project: Meatloaf as even with our reserves we should have enough quality to see off a side from a lower tier. Bingourou Kamara starts in net. He was L'AJA's starting goalkeeper for most of last season but has yet to feature for me. He'll be protected by right back Issa Samba, centre backs Godspower Tower and debutant Mamadou Doucouré and left back Jérôme Mombris. Abdoulaye Sissako and Raf will take the centre of midfield with Phil Foden cutting in from the right, Corentin Tirard out on the left and Amine Chassaing playing behind striker Nathan Andre. In the absence of both our captain and vice captain who have been left out of the squad, Samba takes the armband for us today.



10 minutes into the game, Raf plays a long ball onto the right flank for Phil Foden. The former City man takes the ball down well, cuts inside and has a pop, but the keeper catches it. Not a bad first effort.


A few minutes later the ball's down the other end. Ajaccio's right winger Zoubir capitalises on some hesitant defending by Mombris and nicks the ball off him. He crosses from the byline to the near post where Miquilan can't quite get his shot away. He eventually manages to roll the ball across the face of goal looking for a team mate but fortunately Samba's there to hoof it clear.


With half an hour gone the visitors are matching us better than I expected and I drop us back slightly to just try to control the game. Not long after, Andre picks the ball up from deep and dribbles forwards before having a crack at goal from 20 yards, but he puts it wide.


For the second half I want us making better quality chances so I urge the lads to patiently work the ball into the box. It makes no difference though, we make next to no impact on the second half. Tirard, who started today after his fairly alarmingly poor performance on the opening day, has not done himself any favours today and I hook him after the hour with Foden scooting across to the left wing and Zoun coming on and taking the right.


With 10 minutes to play, Foden too makes way. Hopefully Bassani can save the day. Alas the young winger's no more able to score than any of our other players were before, and I'm so fucking bored by this drab match that I'm starting to break out the sodding rhymes.


Puel has a pot shot for the minnows in the dying seconds of normal time but he nearly puts the ball out for a throw. We go to penalties. It's been a while.


"Who wants them?" I ask my players, who're surrounding me in a tight circle on the edge of the pitch. Nobody's overly enthusiastic but we eventually get 4 names down. Striker Nathan Andre and midfielders Amine Chassaing, Abdoulaye Sissako and Raf. "Anyone else?" I ask, starting to worry. A hand cautiously raises itself into the air. I turn around to face the volunteer.


"I will take it." Says Mamadou Doucouré, our debutant centre back. I can't hide my surprise, but I'm impressed too. This lad's got some nerve.


"You're in," I smile. "Last up."


There's a hush around the ground as the 4000-odd Auxerrois fans watch ballsy young striker Nathan Andre place the ball on the spot. Andre runs up left footed, puts the ball high down the centre and the keeper flaps at it, unable to stop it from bulging the back of the net. Good start. By contrast, Cédric D'Ulivo's walk to the spot is accompanied by a loud chorus of boos and whistles. The centre back steps up confidently though and slots the ball into the bottom left corner, leaving Kamara grasping at thin air.


GFC Ajaccio continue to match us after that. Chassaing scores to the bottom right, then Hamadou scores to the top left. Sissako scores down the middle, then Puel scores to the bottom left. Raf scores to the bottom left, then Zoubir scores to the top right. It's sudden death from now on. 4-4 after 8 penalties and the only question is who will blink first, us or them. Mamadou picks up the ball and walks calmly to the penalty spot, where he places it down carefully. He counts his steps backwards and prepares for the run up. Come on mate. Make it a debut to remember. The referee's whistle blows... The keeper dances on his line... Doucouré runs up... He slams it down the middle as the keeper dives to his right... But his trailing hand shoots up to bat the ball away. Bollocks. Mbae steps up for Ajaccio's 5th penalty and dispatches it into the top left hand corner. GFC Ajaccio win 5-4 on penalties.



https://youtu.be/00e7VUcpetE



Why on Earth did I let Doucouré take it? The deciding penalty and I gave it to the debutant. What a stupid fucking decision. To be fair it was a very good save by the keeper, throwing out a strong hand after already committing himself to diving away from the ball, but still. I've let Doucouré down there. His confidence, barely above rock bottom after being frozen out at his parent club, is now through the floor and we're out of the cup at the first hurdle. I know I want to focus on the League but I was hoping to at least turn over the team from the division below in our first bloody game.



There ain't no rest for the wicked though. The wicked of course being AS Nancy Lorraine, who are the next team to identify one of our young talents and insult us with a really awful low-ball bid. Esteban Mercier is a defensive midfielder that I quite like. He's miles away from being the finished product but at 15 years old that's probably fair enough. What impresses me though is his bravery. That's one of those things that you just can't coach. Either you have it or you don't and this lad has it and some to spare.



Nancy's £82k bid is swatted away without comment as I'm interested to see how he develops, along with another bloody bid for Bassani from FC Lorient.


Moving on from our Coupe de la Ligue disappointment then and after 2 games it'd be naive of me to read too much into our status as league leaders, but today we make the trip to take on Bourg-en-Bresse 01, who are breathing down our necks in 2nd. We both have 6 points out of a possible 6 but we have a slightly better goal difference with 4 to their 3.



We'll go with Project: Meatloaf Mk II for this one as I'm uncertain about going up against a side who've also won both of their matches without a holding man. Unsurprisingly I'm also making the full 11 changes from the side that lost to Ajaccio; Lenogue in net, Aguilar, Captiste, Kakuba and Hikem at the back, Goujon as the holding man, Fomba and Joel in the middle and Zoun and Ba on the wings supporting Aidir. Let's get back on track, shall we?



The first 40 minutes or so are pretty quiet, with the best chance coming after a quarter of an hour when Joël tees up Aidir but his shot is charged down by Bourg-en-Bresse defender Sangaré. With a couple of minutes to go before half time though Zoun runs the ball forward into the opposition half. He passes inside to Lamine Fomba, who sends it on to Hicham Aidir. Hicham bursts past his marker and toe pokes the ball from the edge of the box, sending it into the far bottom corner of the net.


As we go into the second half Bourg-en-Bresse start to show their intentions of pushing forwards and equalising, so we'll pass into the space that they're leaving behind. After an hour we win a corner on the right and Faouzi Hikem goes across to take it. He swings a fantastically vicious ball into the centre of the box and surprisingly it's Adama Ba that rises to meet it, but he can only get enough contact for a glancing header that sends the ball wide of the far post.


Over the next 20 minutes I make a few changes and tweaks: First Foden comes on for Zoun and will cut in from the right, so both full backs will be encouraged to get forwards on the overlap past him and Ba and help us put the game to bed. For the last 10 minutes Sissako comes on replacing Joël, adding more steel to midfield.


We so nearly make it to full time unscathed, but Bourg throw the kitchen sink at us and it finally pays off when Ba is caught sleeping and Rabeasimbola plays a through ball behind him for right back Damour. Damour drills a cross in from the right touchline and Bègue's there at the near post to apply the finish, levelling the game in the 91st minute.



https://youtu.be/LIFLjz9DtDI


Let's be fair, Bourg-en-Bresse have taken 2 late points from us exactly a week after we gained 2 late points from Valenciennes. They say that these things even themselves out in football and it seems like this time they're right. Besides, despite the fact that we've fallen below AC Ajaccio to 2nd in the table, 7 points from our first 3 matches is fine. It's better than fine actually, it's still a brilliant start so I'm staying optimistic for the time being.



DONE DEALS (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep124)


I'm growing to learn that having a great academy is both a blessing and a curse. We're getting closer to the end of the transfer window and the volume of bids for our young stars is getting huge. What makes it even more infuriating is that the majority of bids we're getting are just staggeringly low. I'm only going to mention DONE DEALS from now on because there are certain teams from Ligue 1 who've wasted enough of my bloody time this Summer. So the first DONE DEAL of the week is versatile Texan full back Ed Bolton, who joins FC Chambly-Oise for the year. Good luck, Ed. Hopefully he'll come back having played regularly and will be all the better for it.



There are no more DONE DEALS in the run up to our home match against recently relegated Stade de Reims, but we do have a fresh injury to deal with. Mike Kakuba is going to miss 3-4 weeks with shin splints. He's made a good start to life in Auxerre so this isn't ideal.



Stade de Reims have had a shocking start to the season and they seem to have brought their relegation form into this season, which is excellent news for us. They started off by losing 0-3 away to Valenciennes and followed that up with a 0-1 home loss to Bourg-en-Bresse, but have since won their cup match against fellow Ligue 2 side FC Metz and a league match against USBCO, so actually they might be just now coming into form, which is not excellent news for us.



I'm making a few changes from the side that very nearly beat Bourg-en-Bresse. A couple of them have been forced upon me, what with Mike Kakuba's injury and the fact that Loïc Goujon's been suspended for picking up 3 yellow cards in his last 3 matches. The rule in Ligue 2 is that 3 yellows in a player's last 10 matches earns them a 1 match ban, but I think Loïc's set some kind of record there. Mamadou Doucouré and Abdoulaye Sissako come in to replace them. We're playing Project: Meatloaf and I'm also bringing in Phil Foden to replace Zoun and he'll be playing off the right, but I'm putting him in a more central position today while he gets the hang of it, while Aguilar overlaps up the right wing. Corentin Tirard starts on the left wing in Adama Ba's place to give us more width.



We get off to a bad start when Mohammed's corner in the 8th minute is nodded into the net by Mafuala, who was being double marked at the near post by Sissako and Aidir. I'm not best pleased. Just after the 20 minute mark we nearly go level when Hikem's long ball over the top is missed by centre back... erm... Michael Hector. The error by the former Reading and Chelsea man and veteran of the Jamaican national team allows Hicham Aidir to run in behind and go one on one with the keeper, Carrasso. Carrasso comes out to narrow the angle though and Aidir's shot deflects off his shoulder and goes out for a corner that comes to nothing.


After half an hour Mohammed gets free down the right wing and drills the ball into the middle, where Iloki arrives to double the visitors' lead. Still less than impressed I decide that we may as well go for it. We'll attack, be more fluid and roam from our positions. It makes no difference though and we're 0-2 down at half time, although to be fair the first half has been extremely even. I toy with the idea of bringing off Foden and Aidir, who've both been poor today. Foden's been poor in all of his appearances so far actually, which isn't a great sign. I stick with them for now though and we'll go out to control the second half.


Only a few minutes after the restart Doucouré takes a terrible touch and allows Iloki to nick the ball and run through on goal and shoot, forcing a good save from Lenogue. After the hour and with no comeback in sight I bring on Zoun and Ba for Foden and Tirard and we'll go back to a normal 4-2-3-1 with Zoun providing the width and Ba cutting in. The changes almost pay immediate dividends when Fomba's shot from 20 yards deflects through to Ba, but his shot is denied by another save from Carrasso. The keeper's having a great game to be fair.


Andre replaces Aidir with 20 minutes to play but we don't manage to find a way back, succumbing to our first league loss of the season. Weirdly by the time the final whistle blows I've got no complaints about the team's performance. We matched Stade de Reims in the first half and actually came away the more dominant team overall. Goals are the things that matter though and I've got to say that certain players have let us down today. I'm starting to think that Phil Foden might have been a bad buy although he does still need time, Corentin Tirard is showing none of the qualities that made him a key player last year and Hicham Aidir's had an off day. The day that I lose faith in that man is the day that I walk away from management.



https://youtu.be/EOlxwmhwmPE



Phil Foden actually bruises his head in training during the week. He should be back for our next match but I'm not entirely sure I want to play him.



We do however have another DONE DEAL. I feel like Jim White. 19 year old central midfielder Chancel Kasongo has joined Belgian Pro League B side Tubize on loan for the year. You remember Kasongo, back when I first joined Auxerre I threw him in at the deep end, playing him in all 3 matches as we avoided relegation. With Joël coming in though and with me having more than enough central midfield options, Chancel will go off to test himself with regular football in Belgium's 2nd tier. Good luck mate, let's see if you can do well enough to win back a first team place when you get home.




Our match against rivals ESTAC Troyes has been postponed because Adama Ba, Hicham Aidir and Mamadou Doucouré are all off on international duty and would've missed it. We were due to play them after our next match against USBCO, but we'll now play Troyes in a couple of weeks.



Speaking of USBCO, the predicted relegation strugglers are living up to expectations at present. They've played 5 matches in all competitions so far, losing 4 and winning 1 - A 1-0 win over Red Star FC, which is also the only goal they've scored so far. I feel for them, but I feel like we're starting to lose our way and a home match against a team in this sort of form represents a great opportunity to get back on track.



We'll be lining up with Project: Meatloaf Mk II, with Goujon coming back in for Sissako after his suspension and taking the holding man role where he's excelled so far. I'm also bringing in Zoun and Ba for Foden and Tirard because frankly they've both been awful. Our young loanee Brahim Ferhat starts on the left wing for the opposition today. I made sure that both him and Isaac Sohna at Nîmes had it in their contracts that they were allowed to play against us because I want to see how they do against their parent club.



I really do feel for USBCO. The first thing of note that happens is almost half an hour in when Fomba's tripped by Arnaud Loquet, who just happens to be the only person to be booked thus far. He earns a second yellow and a red, leaving the underdogs more underdoggish than ever. Joël hits the free kick from 30 yards but it deflects through the wall and goes out for a corner.


With 10 minutes to go until half time we counter after USBCO's corner breaks down. Adama Ba runs the ball from our penalty box all the way into the final third. He release Zoun on the right wing, who turns and whips in a low cross. The ball could not be any more on a plate for Joël Soumahoro, unmarked on the penalty spot, but his shot is weak and straight at Thuram-Ulien, who parries it and then smothers the ball before Ba can follow up. Poor from Joël. I want us to make more of our extra man so we need to control the game. We'll play much wider, much quicker, pass into space to use the pace we have up front, we'll be more fluid and we'll close down much more to win the ball back faster and force mistakes from our opposition. Needless to say my changes have no immediate effect and we go in for the break goalless.


At half time USBCO change to an odd 3-2-3-1 formation, with Brahim Ferhat coming off to accommodate the tactical shuffle after a quiet first half. We'll respond by really overloading them at the back. Foden comes on for Zoun and will cut in from the right as Ba does the same on the left, allowing our fullbacks to attack attack attack into the space they leave on the wings. I also bring on Sissako for Goujon to be the ballwinner in midfield.


5 minutes later we string some passes together following a throw in level with USBCO's box. Sissako passes across the edge of the area to Fomba, who lifts his head and plays it on first time through the defence. Phil Foden is in space and is played just onside by one of their centre backs. The young Englishman swings his left boot at the ball first time and finds the net as I let out a huge sigh of relief. Maybe he'll be alright after all.
With 20 minutes to go we win a free kick 30 yards out. Foden passes it short to Sissako, who plays a pass through to Hicham Aidir in the box. Our striker is in far too much space and he punishes USBCO with a deft finish into the near top corner. Andre replaces Ba not long after but the match ends 2-0. Despite our advantage I'm very satisfied with that result.



https://youtu.be/rHdp_p3nj3U


That result puts us 4th in the league, which I'm more than happy with. We still do have transfer deadline day to deal with though and while I'm not looking to bring anybody in, I think it's going to be a long day of low-ball offers and frustration. The first youngster to leave is Robin Faivre. After some mild interest earlier in the Summer I eventually agree to Marseille's offer of £750k for the 15 year old. We'll also get a big chunk of his next sale as per.



The next lad to leave is Esteban Mercier. Like Robin there has been interest for Esteban before but I hadn't received what I would call any "Serious" offers until AS Nancy Lorraine came in with half a million for the 15 year old midfielder.



I then pick up a knife and fork and get ready to eat my words, because I didn't think I'd be bringing anyone in today but somebody happens to have caught my eye. Bilal Souabni is a player that I've seen before, playing for Morrocco's U20's with Hicham Aidir. He's a 19 year old left back that plays for FUS Rabat in his home country and he's available for free. He looks promising: Pacy, agile, well balanced and able to run all day. He's also a hard working team player which as you'll know is right up my alley. His technical attributes need some work but I'm willing to gamble on the fact that we can get them sorted out. A contract is duly offered which would see him join us on the 1st of December after his current contract expires.



It doesn't take long for Bilal to agree to my offer and what's more, FUS Rabat are willing to let us buy him out of his contract for only £11k so that he can join us now. I willingly pay up.




I quickly dub the young full back Billy and place him on the loan list. I'd put him in a similar category to Isaac Sohna: A young player with undoubted potential but who is not going to get enough football under me this year to progress.



Quite a few bids come in straight away for Billy, most of which are from Ligue 2 sides. I'm half tempted to send him out to Nîmes Olympique so that he can play next to Sohna, but there are a couple of offers on the table that I just can't turn down - Belgian Pro League A sides Eupen and KV Kortrijk, both of whom want to give him first team football. I'll let him choose between them.



He opts for Eupen, who we played in pre-season. It's a solid choice and I look forward to seeing how he gets on in Belgium's top flight.



The next DONE DEAL as we creep closer to the end of the window is another of our 15 year old midfielders, Olivier Lenglet. He'll move to Marseille for an initial £350k rising to £550k with additional fees.




I've spared you a lot of the details over the last week or so, but suffice to say that Bordeaux have been bloody hounding me for Abdoulaye Traoré. With 2 hours to go before the deadline I try to negotiate them up to half a million for the striker but they refuse to pay up. With 45 minutes to go though they bid the half a million. I negotiate them up to £750k for wasting my fucking time. The window closes before they can send the paperwork through anyway though, so the deal's cancelled. What a mess, Bordeaux.




But then I let out another huge sigh of relief. The window's closed. I can finally get some peace without constant phone calls asking if I'll let my academy's top prospects go for a fiver and half a Snickers. There's nothing to focus on now but football.



Derby de la N77 (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep125)



"Welcome back, Isaac." I grin as the young Cameroonian steps off Nîmes' team bus.


"Hi, Boss." Says Sohna, taking off his colourful over-ear headphones.


"I've had Crouchie watching your matches, he says you're doing well."


"Yeah I'm doing alright", he shrugs. "The strikers are a lot better than they were in South Africa though." He let's out a chuckle. "I won't be taking it easy on Hicham today though."


"I wouldn't expect you to, mate" I smile. "Good luck." I shake his hand and he falls into line with his teammates, putting his headphones back on as he walks into Stade Abbé-Deschamps.



Just like Brahim Ferhat in our last match, Isaac Sohna is absolutely eligible to play against us today as I want to have the opportunity to see him play against us and judge how he's getting on for myself. We'll be starting with Project: Meatloaf Mk II today and after the success we had in our last match with 2 inside forwards and 2 overlapping full backs, we'll be trying the same thing again. Phil Foden comes in replacing Zoun after getting off the mark as a half time sub against USBCO, but otherwise we stay unchanged. Mike Kakuba's fit enough for a spot on the bench though after his recent injury.



We start the match playing some beautiful football and take the lead after only 20 minutes, when a fantastic passing move finishes with a chipped cross from Faouzi Hikem and a calm but precise volley into the bottom corner from Hicham Aidir. Sohna's hands go straight over his face but mine shoot into the air. Brilliant start.


The rest of the half is pretty quiet and my team talk is just quiet encouragement to keep doing what we're doing. The reaction is better than I expected though as within 30 seconds of the restart, Adama Ba cuts in from the left wing and lets rip from 25 yards, straight into the top corner. It's a great hit to put us 2-0 up.


With 20 minutes to go I bring Zoun on for Foden. He played a part in the first goal but otherwise he's had another quiet game. 5 minutes later we push through the centre and Joël passes to Aidir on the edge of the box, who seems to be double marked by Sohna and defensive midfielder Dimitri Capelle. They both stand off him though, which gives Hicham plenty of time to trap the ball, pick his spot and smash it into the far top corner. Sohna's had a pretty poor game but we've looked absolutely unstoppable at some points. Mike Kakuba gets 10 minutes as a holding man at the end as I look to build his match fitness and the game ends at 3-0.



https://youtu.be/DgoQvhkvAUc


Not only am I buoyed by the overall team performance, but I think that's the first time I've seen the hype about Faouzi Hikem. Given more freedom as an overlapping fullback instead of a defensive one, he was excellent. Getting himself in good positions, dribbling well, passing well. So much so actually that he's earned himself a place in the Ligue 2 Team of the Week alongside Loïc Goujon and Joël Soumahoro. Hicham Aidir's omitted, which I find odd until I see that US Orléans' striker Yoane Wissa also scored twice in his team's 4-0 demolition of Valenciennes, so it's probably a coin toss.




Our next match pits us against ESTAC Troyes, who were my first opponents as Auxerre manager. The rivalry between the 2 clubs is known as the Derby de la N77, referring to Route Nationale 77, a road that connects Auxerre and Troyes. Our rivals are managed by none other than Benoît Cheyrou, a former Auxerre defensive midfielder of 3 years, although he's most well known for his subsequent spells at Marseille and Toronto. His side are only 2 points behind us in the league so they can climb above us with a win, but off the back of that last performance I'm feeling good about this one.



I'm keeping the same lineup that beat Nîmes so handily. Mike Kakuba's fit again but after keeping 2 consecutive clean sheets I'm in no rush to interrupt the developing partnership between Captiste and Doucouré.



My confidence in that centre back partnership starts to unravel after just 7 minutes when a hoofed ball forwards is nodded on by MBeumo and Adama Niané nips in front of Captiste to control the ball and blast it into the top corner of Lenogue's net. We equalise just 5 minutes later though before the sense of dread really starts to kick in, when Phil Foden's low cross deflects into the Troyes net off the foot of midfielder Bilal Brahimi. I don't care how they go in, so I'll take the own goal with open arms.


ESTAC Troyes come straight back at us after the kick off. The ball's worked around until it reaches the goalscorer Niané and he dribbles past Doucouré before shooting at Lenogue, but our keeper catches it comfortably. Ruben Aguilar twists his ankle after 20 minutes, which worries me, but he'll play on for as long as he can because I don't have a right back on the bench.


On the half hour mark, we win a free kick on the right wing, level with the Troyes box. Foden executes a nice little chip into the area and Goujon flicks the ball on, but when Adama Ba meets it just outside the 6 yard box he gets underneath the ball and sends it looping over the bar. The game continues at a million miles an hour, with both teams quite open and quite eager to get forwards. Phil Foden tries his luck from 25 yards a few minutes after Ba's chance, but he skews the ball wide.


With 5 minutes to go before the break, ESTAC Troyes win a corner on the left. Domingues swings it in towards Brahimi, but just as he jumps for the ball Aidir pushes him in the back. Mr Brisard, the referee, gives a penalty and it seems like the right decision. As good as Aidir is in front of the opposition's goal, his defending could do with some work. I take some small comfort in the fact that the referee decides to just give the big Moroccan a telling off and doesn't show him a card. Niané, the Malian International goalscorer, steps up to take the penalty as Xavier Lenogue jumps up and down on his line, waving his arms to try and put him off. Niané runs up... Shoots right... AND LENOGUE SAVES IT! The Martiniquais International dives the right way and parries the ball away as Hikem sprints in to boot it out for a throw. I feel even more vindicated for putting my faith in Xavier now, after watching our other keeper Kamara not save a single penalty against GFC Ajaccio the other week.


At half time I bring on Mike Kakuba in place of Aguilar, who's really struggling with his twisted ankle. It isn't ideal but Mike's at least decently comfortable as a right sided full back so he'll have to do. 10 minutes into the second half a patient Auxerre passing move culminates with Ba passing the ball inside for Joël, who turns, makes himself some space on the edge of the box with a little burst of pace and fires the ball into the right hand side of the net. We've had some luck on our side but in a match we've largely dominated up to this point, we've finally taken the lead over our rivals.


With half an hour to go Benoît Cheyrou throws me a curved ball, changing from his simple 4-2-3-1 to a flat 3-4-3 as he tries to find an equaliser. We respond by bringing out Project: Burnie Mk III. Kakuba, Captiste and Doucouré will form a back 3, Goujon will awkwardly slot in at right wing back and Hikem will be left wing back. I also bring Abdoulaye Sissako on for Phil Foden as a ball winner alongside Fomba in our central midfield 2 and Joël will be the number 10 behind a front 2 of Hicham Aidir and Adama Ba, who I instruct just to use his physicality to be a defensive forward, chasing down the back 3 and trying to create chances for Aidir. Both wing backs are also instructed to tightly man mark the opposing wingers.


The tactical change does the trick and we nullify ESTAC Troyes' search for a second goal. The match ends 2-1 after a very satisfying comeback. The win also moves us up to 2nd in the league, which I'm incredibly happy with. To say that we've been predicted to finish 7th, apart from a couple of blips we've started this season in scintillating form. I'm feeling good about this year.



https://youtu.be/MqVXtcBsl0U



Bonus (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 125.5)


I come back to my flat to find my front door ajar. My heartbeat quickens. A burglar? An escaped murderer from a local jail? My excellent mood following the ESTAC Troyes match dissipates almost instantly. Cautiously I push the door open to reveal the living room of my flat. The first thing I notice is that there’s a small children’s paddling pool over by one of the armchairs. There isn’t usually a small children’s paddling pool over by one of the armchairs. Sitting in the armchair, with her shoes and socks removed, the bottom of her suit trousers rolled up slightly and her feet in the pool, is Sylvania.


I look at her, dumbfounded. She looks back at me showing a tremendous amount of excitement, from her Cheshire cat grin to the jazz hands she’s holding out. After a moment to take in this bizarre scene, I manage to say “What?”


“VOILA!” She cries. “I did it!”


“What on Earth could you possibly be referring to? Where are my cats?” I ask.


“Around,” she says vaguely, flourishing her hand dismissively. “I spoke to Auxerre and they gave us a bonus for avoiding relegation!” She squeals, if anything getting even more excited with each word.


“Right... What kind of bonus?”


“Well it wasn’t much.” She says, abruptly dialling it back several notches. “10 of the finest pounds!”


“10... thousand?” Sylvania shakes her head. “10 Hund... A thousand?” She continues to shake her head. “You got me a bonus of 10 pounds?” She nods. “OK... Well first of all, good job for... Getting anything” I start cautiously, “Can I have it?”


“You’re looking at it, Monsieur Franjo!” She beams. I look at her. And then at the paddling pool. And then around the room.


“I don’t think I am.” She nods vigorously, ramping her excitement back up to 11. She gestures down to the pool. I face the truth that I didn’t want to believe. “The pool cost £10, didn’t it.”


“15!” She corrects me, hardly able to contain her misplaced joy. “I had to put some towards it, but I thought you would enjoy it far more! It’s the finest one they had!” I just stare at her, slack jawed. “You do owe me 17 percent though”, she adds, suddenly deadly serious.


“17 percent of what, this pool?! It’ll flood my bloody flat if you try and take a chunk out of it!”


“Not of the pool!” She beams. “Simply pay me the £1.70 I am owed and reimburse the £5 I put towards the pool, plus my travel fees for the day.”


“Which were?” I groan, regretting every decision I’ve ever made.


“About £10 for trains and buses”. I open my wallet, take out a 20 pound note and dejectedly hold it out for her. She stands up and leaps out of the pool, spraying water across the living room as she lands next to me to snatch the note.
 “Merci!” She smiles, as she walks past me towards the front door. “Make sure to call me the next time you need my expertise!”

I scan every surface in my eye-line quickly, but it doesn’t look like she’s left a business card. I doubt I’ll need one though. She slams the door as she leaves but it swings back open. The lock’s broken. I guess I’m out of pocket for that too. And as far as I can see, I’m down 2 cats.


What the fuck is happening?


The Foden Problem (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep126)


I fall back against my front door, slamming it shut. I'm exausted. I slide across the new cranked barrel bolt that the nice locksmith assured me would keep out any would-be eccentric and possibly psychotic intruders. It took me over 2 hours just to work out where Meatloaf and Burnie were hiding and to tempt them out with a packet of dreamies. We're good though. Everything's back to normal, and that means that I can start focussing on our next match - Away at US Créteil-Lusitanos.



Les Béliers are in a sticky patch of form at the minute. Having opened the season with a loss at Strasbourg, they won 4 on the bounce in all competitions but have since lost 4 on the bounce, including twice against Bourg-en-Bresse in the cup and league. Still, they were one of the favourites for relegation before the season started and they're currently sitting pretty in 13th. I'll be sticking with Project: Meatloaf Mk II for this one but I'll need to make a personnel change. After coming off at half time against ESTAC Troyes, Ruben Aguilar has been ruled out for 2 weeks with a twisted ankle.



It just so happens that the yellow card he picked up in that first half took him to 3 in his last 10 games, which means he's suspended for this game anyway. I'm not saying he got booked deliberately... Wink... But it's a happy coincidence all the same. Also banned for this one is Abdoulaye Sissako, who came on as a sub against Troyes and also picked up a booking. So coming in at right back today is Issa Samba, a man that I've not seen too much of so far aside from in our Cup defeat against GFC Ajaccio. Also, I've made a decision regarding Phil Foden and that decision is this: Even though he's undoubtedly been our worst player so far this season, I'm going to give him a run of games. My reasoning is that this is all new to Phil: The regular competitive matches, playing off the right, being in a foreign country. He's been a reserve player his whole career so far and maybe a run in a professional team will jump start him. If it doesn't then at least I'll have tried.



The first real chance for either team comes just before the 20 minute mark, when Hicham Aidir slips a pass through for Foden. He strokes the ball towards goal with his weaker right foot but the shot's easy for Descamps to catch. I actually wonder if he heard me talking before the match because he goes very close after 40 minutes with a free kick from just outside the area. He slams it against the angle between post and crossbar as we continue to knock on the USCL door. Just before the break, Doucouré breaks up a half hearted attack by the hosts and starts one of our own. The ball gets up to Aidir and he lays it off for who else but Phil Foden, who turns, lashes the ball goalwards and it cracks against the bar again. To be fair to him, he's unlucky not to be on the scoresheet.


We head back out for the second half and within minutes, USCL are the ones threatening. Buaillon's corner is nodded on by Caddy at the near post, headed back across goal by Niakaté at the far post and volleyed against the underside of the bar at point-blank range by Zélateur-Pinau. The ball hits the line, bounces off Hikem's foot and is cleared by Doucouré as I wipe the sweat from my brow. We go on the counter after that and with 20 minutes to go we're still tied up at 0-0. I bring on Zoun for Adama Ba and stick him on the right, with Foden moving across to the left. Aidir will be a target man in the middle and we'll go direct to him as we continue to try to find the breakthrough. Within seconds we almost see results when Soumahoro passes long to Aidir on the left wing. Aidir strides powerfully towards goal and shoots, but drags his shot wide of the far post.


I bring on Tirard for Foden for the last 10 minutes in the hopes that an out and out left winger will provide a better outlet, but Tirard offers nothing. The match ends goalless.



As disappointed as I am that we weren't able to score, a draw is probably what both teams deserve from this one. Foden was unlucky not to score, but then so was Zélateur-Pinau. Although granted Foden hit the bar twice from 20 yards and Zélateur-Pinau hit it once from 2. Anyway, let's move on quickly.



AC Ajaccio are next up, not to be confused with GFC Ajaccio who beat us in the Coupe de la Ligue. We're currently 2nd behind the surprising early league leaders Bourg-en-Bresse, who were predicted to finish in lower midtable. We're 3 points behind them and Ajaccio are 2 points behind us in 3rd, so it's a big match.



In the run up to the match I call Phil Foden into my office and let him know that I've been less than impressed with him so far and that he needs to buck his ideas up. Thankfully he takes my criticism well, promising that he can improve and be an important part of my team.



I'm not making any changes at all for this one. Aguilar's still out but Samba gave a decent showing against Créteil, so I'm happy to keep him in place. I'm getting good performances from the rest of the team too so I'm going to leave the lineup alone for the time being. I see a surprising name on the opposition teamsheet though: Benjamin Valette starts for AC Ajaccio. The lad who was probably my brightest midfield talent at the start of the Summer was sold to Marseille, who've sent him out on loan to our opponents. Let's show him that he shouldn't have been so quick to demand a transfer away from Auxerre.



We look lively in the first couple of minutes and while latecoming fans are still taking their seats we put together a brilliant move that ends with Aidir teeing up Adama Ba, who catches the ball beautifully and whacks it against the far post. With 6 minutes gone Aidir sets Phil Foden away down the right, but he's perhaps overly eager to impress me and shoots with his weaker right foot from a narrow angle, sending the ball into the sidenetting.


20 minutes later, Samba gets some space in the final third on the right wing and chips a cross in. Pavlovic heads it away but only as far as Lamine Fomba, who takes a touch and tries an audacious outside-of-the-foot shot from 20 yards, which - Any guesses? - Comes back off the underside of the bar. Bloody hell, if only hitting the woodwork counted as a goal, eh? Sensing that we're the better team after our early play we push on slightly, looking to control.


With seconds to go before half time, Fomba hoofs the ball into the air towards the right wing. Aidir controls it well and cuts inside onto his trusty left foot, continuing to run to the edge of the box. When he gets towards the centre he lashes a shot at goal, but Ajaccio captain Riffi Mandanda, younger brother of Steve, parries it well. Ba keeps the ball in though and we keep plugging away. Ba sends a cross in, it's headed away, sent back in, controlled by Joël, laid off for Ba who chips it in again and Aidir volleys it home. Finally. I was beginning to think we wouldn't score again for the rest of the season.


We drop back to a standard mentality at half time and within 2 minutes of the second half we've doubled our advantage. A well worked move from a throw in sees Foden pass inside to Joël, who squares it across to the penalty spot, where Ba's waiting to clip the ball into the bottom corner. This is more like it. I can barely remember the sound of the ball hitting the bloody woodwork.


I give Mike Kakuba 20 minutes in place of Doucouré as I want to keep him as match fit as possible and with 10 minutes to go Zoun replaces Joël and takes the right wing, while Phil Foden drops back into midfield. With just a few minutes to play Ajaccio pull one back through a well struck free kick from Prince Vincent, but it's too little too late. The match ends 2-1 to Auxerre.



https://youtu.be/w-3Nm_cPyts


Is it annoying to lose your clean sheet in the closing stages? Yes, of course it is. Sometimes the positives outweigh the negatives though and this is one of those times. Solid performances throughout the team, including Phil Foden, quality performances from Adama Ba and Joël especially and what's most pleasing of all is that this was billed as a high pressure game. I saw zero nerves from this Auxerre team today. This is a team of winners. I'm a very happy man tonight.



Haunting (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep127)

"Monsieur Franjo!" A journalist's hand shoots into the air. "You're unbeaten in 5 games and comparisons have been made between your good start to this season and your surprise title win with SC Angrense in 2018. Do you think that you can keep up this kind of form and replicate that achievement with AJ Auxerre?"



"Look, with all due respect, we're 9 matches into a 38 match season," I smirk. "We've had a good start to the season and obviously we want to finish as high up the table as we can, but for the moment... I've still only been here for a few months and there are still things that we're working out as a club. A title push isn't on my radar at the minute."



I am happy with that record though. In our last 5 matches we've won 4, scored 9 and conceded 2. We're in brilliant form and I want us to carry that on today when we travel to US Orléans. Orléans have had a distinctly average start to the season and they play with a 4-4-2, so I'm torn on whether I want to stick with Project: Meatloaf Mk II, which has seen us play so impressively recently, or swap to Project: Burnie Mk III, which I designed specifically for use against formations like theirs. In the end I go with Project: Burnie Mk III. I think we'll be more comfortable with a back 3 against their front 2. Adama Ba and Phil Foden come out, although I haven't forgotten about my pledge to give Phil a run of games, and Mike Kakuba and Nathan Andre come in. Kakuba will mark their 6'5" target man Nathaël Julan and Mamadou Doucouré will take the more industrious Yoane Wissa, who's in good form having scored 6 goals already this season. Wing backs Issa Samba and Faouzi Hikem will man mark their wingers too.



Our first chance comes after 23 minutes when Fomba passes inside to Joël and the Ivorian playmaker turns and shoots, but Desprez dives to his left and catches the ball pretty comfortably. Desprez boots the ball upfield quickly and Julan rises to beat Kakuba in the air and nod the ball down the unguarded left wing. Barreto leaves Samba for dead and runs to the edge of the area, drawing Loïc Goujon across to meet him before chipping the ball across to the unmarked Wissa, who volleys Orléans ahead. Our defending in the last 10 seconds has been utterly, utterly diabolical. Nobody apart from Kakuba was doing what I asked them to and even he failed in his job.


5 minutes later we win a free kick on the edge of Orléans' box, courtesy of our former right back Khamis Digol. Aidir and Joël stand over the ball but it's Aidir who takes it, smashing the ball over the wall and past the flailing keeper to equalise. Our celebrations don't last long though. Just as the clock ticks past the half hour Livolant gets free of Hikem on the right and drills a cross in that goes all the way through to Julan at the far post, who bundles the hosts back ahead. We go on the counter after that as Orléans are really punishing us on the counter themselves, but the rest of the half is quiet.


In fact pretty much the rest of the game is quiet. Sissako and Foden come on for Goujon and Joël with 25 minutes to go and 10 minutes after that we go on the attack. The only good chance created is with 5 minutes to play, when Julan looks up in his own half and plays a superb ball into the channel for Wissa to chase. Doucouré manages to force the Congolese striker wide enough that his shot flies into the stands, but apart from a short Zoun cameo and a knock picked up by Sissako, that's all she wrote.



https://youtu.be/LnLg2UI8GEM


I'll hold my hands up partially for that one. Yes, if I hadn't changed a winning system we might have got something out of the game, but equally if we had played the system properly we might have come away with something too. I cannot get over our defending for the first goal. It'll haunt my dreams tonight.



The late injury suffered by Abdoulaye Sissako is a twisted knee that'll keep him out for 9-12 days. He's not really impressed me so far. He picks up that many yellow cards when he does get on the pitch that he seems to be constantly suspended or injured, which isn't a good quality.



Zoun, who apparently has fucking awful timing, chooses now as the time to tell me that he wants to join Nice in Ligue 1. Not when we were on an unbeaten run, but straight after we lose. I humour him and we chat about a potential move. He thinks his value is £2.6M and I heartily disagree, valuing him at about £5M. He isn't happy.



Godspower Tower also thinks that this is a prime time to come and see me, making me check my trusty grey coat to see if someone's stuck a "Bother me while I'm pissed off" sign to my back. Tower wants first team football, which is reasonable as he's only played in our cup loss so far this season. Luckily for me, Captiste steps in and uses his Super Captaincy Powers to calm the big centre back down.



And just to pour some salt in the wound, Adama Ba's named in the Domino's Ligue 2 Team of the Week. On the face of it this might seem like good news, but he's won the accolade after his performance against Ajaccio in midweek and I dropped him for the very next match because I changed to a system that doesn't use wingers, so for me this is just rubbing in my poor decision making.



Ba's also won the Goal of the Month award for his lovely effort from 20 yards against Nîmes Olympique. It was a brilliant strike to be fair.



https://youtu.be/WAnzki1Ovrc


And while we're on the monthly awards, Hicham Aidir was the runner up in the Player of the Month award behind Wesley Saïd. Our striker's had a terrific month, bagging 4 goals in 5 games and taking his overall tally to 8 goals in his first 10 matches for Auxerre, which is just phenomenal.



After our next match against FC Metz some of our players will be heading off on International Duty. On loan full backs Billy and Ed Bolton are off to represent Morocco U20's and USA U20's respectively and Zoun, Raf, Ba, Lenogue, Aidir and Doucouré are joining up with their full national sides.



But let's make sure we have something to smile about during that 2 week break by beating FC Metz at Stade Abbé-Deschamps. Like our last opponents, Metz have made a distinctly average start to the season and currently sit in 11th place on 13 points. We should have these, surely.



I'm swallowing my pride and returning to Project: Meatloaf Mk II in the hope that we can recapture that good form. I want us to prove a point today though so we'll be attacking and play with more fluidity from the off. Foden and Ba are back in for Kakuba and Andre to take their places cutting inside from the wings. Aguilar's back to full fitness but to be fair Issa Samba has played very well in his absence, even against US Orléans (Aside from their opening goal, but I blame the entire defence equally for that), so I won't be dropping him today.



Metz set up to swamp the midfield with a flat 4-5-1 and it catches us by surprise. After 3 minutes Aidir runs into a brick wall when trying to run through them and they counter through lone striker Santini. He dribbles forwards and then plays the ball through for Millet, who runs through on goal. The midfielder tries to stroke the ball into the far top corner but he gets it ever so slightly wrong and the ball comes back off the underside of the bar and is cleared.


After that we start to settle into the game though and before a quarter of an hour's passed, we get a throw in on the right, level with the Metz penalty area. Samba throws it to Fomba, who gives it straight back. Samba looks up and passes inside to Phil Foden, who drills a cross into the centre. I think everyone, including Faouzi Hikem, is surprised when the ball falls to Faouzi Hikem's feet 8 yards out, but when it does he makes no mistake, blasting it into the bottom corner to put us ahead.


7 or 8 minutes later, Aidir dribbles forwards through FC Metz's half, but Paul Millet, clearly still upset about his earlier miss, hacks him down maliciously and earns himself a straight red card. Metz go to a narrow 4-1-3-1 and bring on defensive midfielder Soudani for left winger Bazile, and the substitute tries to rally his team a couple of minutes later with a shot from 20 yards, but on reflection it wasn't a good idea. The ball goes ballooning into the Stade Abbé-Deschamps crowd.


With 10 minutes to go before half time, Joël picks out Samba on the right in acres of space. Samba arcs a beautiful cross in to the far post and Ba arrives to meet it, but his headed effort hits the inside of the near post and rolls across the line, only to be cleared. A minute later we win a corner on the left and Foden goes across to take it. He curls a flat cross right onto the head of Lamine Fomba, who powers it past Dejanovic to open his account for the season. At least, that's what I think happens at first glance. What actually happens is that Lamine Fomba heads it goalwards and Hicham Aidir, stood right in front of the keeper and played onside by the defender marking the post, glances it into the net with the subtlest of touches. It's a poacher's goal but I won't begrudge him it. A top striker wants to get on the scoresheet whenever he possibly can and Hicham certainly fits that description. As we go into injury time he tries again after Phil Foden lays him off, shooting from the edge of the area and forcing a good save from Dejanovic, but at half time the score is 2-0.


Adama Ba comes into the changing room complaining about his calf. He must have tweaked it in the dying seconds of the half, so I bring him off as a precaution and bring Nathan Andre on in his place. Andre's not much of a winger so we change to a narrow 4-2-3-1 with Andre, Joël and Foden behind Aidir.


Just before the hour mark we get our third when Faouzi Hikem gets clear down the left wing and pulls the ball back for Phil Foden, who arrives on the edge of the 6 yard box and slides the ball home. I punch the air when that one goes in. With every goal or assist Phil racks up, his confidence will get slightly higher and hopefully he'll be able to put together some consistent good performances.
Muratovic has a weak attempt at our goal 20 minutes from time but FC Metz already look defeated. The sending off really destroyed them I think, although I would've still backed us to beat them with 11 men. I give Raf a cameo a few minutes later, but nothing else of note happens before the final whistle.



https://youtu.be/WlC0_Iseb6U


Today was a sneak peek of Phil Foden on top form and it was brilliant to watch. A goal and 2 assists sees him receive the Man of the Match award, just edging out Faouzi Hikem, who I've also had doubts about and who also had a fantastic match. If I can get these 2 playing like this consistently then we've got a couple of very good players on our hands.



Fundamentally Wrong (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep128)

The 2 week International break is a chance for me to collect my thoughts after a hectic start to the season. We've really made a better start than I could've hoped for. Everyone's pulling their weight and even Phil Foden's starting to show why I broke my personal transfer record to bring him in, although not consistently. Overall I'm really happy. And why shouldn't I be, we're 2nd in the bloody league!


There was some good news and bad news to come out of our 3-0 win over Metz. I took Adama Ba off at half time as a precaution after he tweaked a muscle in his thigh and it turns out that he strained it, so he misses the entire International break, which is good timing if you think about it. On the upside though, we had 4 players in the Domino's Ligue 2 Team of the Week. Phil Foden and Faouzi Hikem are both in after they had fantastic games against Metz and I mentioned after the match how pleased I were that they were starting to show their undoubted quality, but the other 2 pleasing inclusions are Issa Samba and Mamadou Doucouré, who I really had pegged as back up players about a month ago. Doucouré's been spurred on after his debut penalty miss though and is putting together a mean partnership at the back with Captiste, while Issa's barely put a foot wrong since coming in for the injured Ruben Aguilar.




I then get some more bad news though and it really is pretty bad. The jewel of our academy, Nathan Andre, slips a disc in training and will miss up to 3 months. This is bad news on a number of levels: Firstly, he's an excellent prospect and I don't want to see his development hindered, and secondly he was my backup striker in the absence of Florian Ayé, so it's looking like until the New Year we'll be relying solely on Aidir and possibly our functional target man Romain Montiel to score the goals. Romain's a nice lad, but if Hicham gets injured before January our attack will be about as threatening as a crayon drawing of Bob Ross in a Pikachu onesie.



Anyway, the rest of the squad come through the break unscathed and are raring to go by the time our visit to Niort rolls around. Chamois Niortais have had a rough start. They were predicted to finish safe in midtable but early signs are that they're in serious trouble. They're currently propping up the League having won 1 and lost 7 of their first 11 matches.

They need to be respected though of course. Besides the fact that their luck might change and propel them back into mediocrity, they play with a narrow 4-3-3, the prospect of which always makes me anxiously furrow my brow slightly. The match will come a few days too soon for Adama Ba so Corentin Tirard will come in and have another chance to show me that he deserves to be here, although my patience is waring thin with him. We'll stick with Project: Meatloaf Mk II but we'll play very narrow as we do against these narrow formations.



After 10 minutes of the match, Tirard gets on the ball and does actually contribute, playing it inside for Joël. The playmaker dribbles to the edge of the box but shoots just wide of the far post. The rest of the half is nothing much to write home about aside from a chance about 7 minutes before half time, when Fomba squares the ball to Aidir. He plays it on to Tirard, who thwacks it at goal first time with his weaker right foot, but Allagbé pulls a save out of the top draw, tipping the ball against the post at full stretch. To be fair to Tirard, he's certainly caught my attention so far.


The second half is even less action packed than the first, believe it or not, and with 25 minutes to go I bring Tirard off, replacing him with Zoun to stretch the defence as they tire. He'll go onto the right flank and Foden will swap over to the left. With 10 minutes to play I also hook Hicham Aidir, who's been quiet as a mouse all game. I could do without that kind of performance from him after Andre's recent injury. Montiel comes on in his place as we trudge towards the final whistle.


Seconds later though, Fomba gets on the ball and looks up, assessing his options. Chamois Niortais have over-extended somewhat while looking for the breakthrough and are furiously pack-pedalling as our midfielder plays a direct ball forward to Montiel, who plays it first time into the acres of space in front of Zoun on the right wing. The 400 travelling fans roar with appreciation as the Burkinabe winger strides into the box, while 4 white shirts arrive just behind him. Zoun pulls the ball back towards Montiel on the penalty spot - But the pass is just behind the target man. There's a half-second of silence as the chance appears to be gone, before another white shirt arrives. Zoun's pass wasn't meant for Montiel, it was meant for Phil bloody Foden, who strokes the ball into the bottom corner of the net to score what turns out to be the winning goal.



https://youtu.be/NThkauRi8Ik


After the initial jubilation dies down, I'm not quite sure how I feel about that performance. We scored an 81st minute winner against the team at the bottom of the league at the end of a so-so match. On reflection though, our defenders all impressed and restricted the opposition's 3 strikers to pot shots all day. Plus, I'm not going to overthink this one. We did dominate and although Hicham had an off day, we managed to find the net. I was impressed with Montiel's part in the goal too, receiving the ball with his back to goal, playing it quickly into space for a quicker man and sprinting into the box to try and get on the scoresheet. Maybe he'll be decent backup after all.



I get collared by a couple of my fringe players in the week leading up to our next match. Bingourou Kamara's the first to come to me complaining about first team football, but luckily Captiste's with me and manages to calm him down instantly. I don't know how he does it. He's like Phoebe in that one episode of Friends where she has a knack for breaking up with people. Just a couple of seconds of quiet conversation, then hug it out and everything's sorted before you can say "Clunky popular culture reference".



Amine Chassaing's also unhappy with his playing time and he tells me that he wants to go out on loan. As Captiste opens his mouth to fucking hypnotise him or whatever he does though, I hold out a hand to stop him because I think it's a brilliant idea. Chassaing could do with regular football and he won't fit into my team at the minute, so I agree to try and sort him out with a loan move.



Our win over Chamois Niortais hasn't gotten us any closer to table topping Bourg-en-Bresse, which is annoying. They're keeping a 4 point cushion over us as they continue their fantastic 12 match unbeaten run. All we can do to try and catch them is to keep winning and wait for them to slip up, so I'm expecting us to beat Red Star FC in front of our own fans today. Red Star are doing fine so far in the League, currently sitting 6 places above their pre-season predicted place in 10th. They're in decent form but so are we. And we've kept 2 clean sheets in a row.



Red Star play a narrow 4-1-3-2, which is an interesting formation. There's not much sense playing narrow like we do against, say, Chamois Niortais' 4-3-3, because this particular narrow system shouldn't overload us that much going forwards, but will probably be quite difficult to break down. With that in mind I'm breaking out the Meatloaf. We're the home side so I want us to dominate and peg them back in their own half. We've got the quality to find a way through if we can get them under the thumb. Adama Ba's fit again so he'll come in for the pretty ineffective Tirard on the left, cutting inside with Foden while we get our full backs overlapping again and helping to dominate the final third.



We're behind within 15 minutes when midfielder Coulibaly chips a lovely ball through for Crnicki, who shows great technique in half-volleying the ball into the bottom corner of Lenogue's net. The next 20 minutes are a pretty even affair but our situation worsens as we approach half time, when Loïc Goujon recklessly trips Red Star striker Bailly as he holds the ball up, earning a second yellow and a red. I respond by dropping Joël back into midfield alongside Fomba and giving our full backs more attacking responsibility. We will now go a bit narrower and exploit the flanks with those attacking full backs.


At half time it's still a level game in every aspect but the scoreline and the number of players on the pitch. For the second half we'll go more attacking as we need to find a way back in. On the hour though we've still not found an equaliser so Aidir becomes a target man who'll hold the ball up as we build up play around him. We'll also go more direct to him. For all my tactical tweaks, we're 2-0 down less than a minute later when Cros chips the ball up for Crnicki on the edge of the box. It's a nice little lay up and Crnicki capitalises, fizzing his volley into the bottom corner to double his side's advantage.


With just over 20 minutes to go, Fomba and Berthé challenge for a header in midfield and Fomba pushes him right in the back needlessly. My head's in my hands as the referee shows him his second yellow and Auxerre's second red. "Get off the fucking pitch" I spit as our midfielder shuffles towards the tunnel, shaking his head in disbelief. He glances up at me gives me a dismissive look as he goes past. I'm furious. This is the first time while I've been at Auxerre where I feel like I've actually been out-thought by my opposite number. My tactics were wrong from the start and that's why we're losing, but having 9 men certainly doesn't fucking help. Certain that the game's already over, I rejig our formation with little confidence that it'll improve our situation. We swap to a pretty pathetic looking 2-2-3-1 formation with a centre back pairing, 2 attacking wing backs, a midfield trio of ball winner Sissako, subbed on for Ba, and playmakers Joël and Foden. Aidir cuts a lonely figure up front.



We go route one from that point on and it only takes 5 minutes for the changes to have an effect. A pretty nice looking Auxerre move ends with Joël picking out Hikem in space on the left wing. The wing back gets to the byline and whips a delicious cross in to the far post, straight onto the head of Aidir who's standing a couple of yards out. He nods it wide as the 5000 Auxerre fans groan in unison, echoing my feelings. I'm going back to my flat. This has been a remarkably frustrating day.



https://youtu.be/uOqSxSICk1I


Somehow the match was still very very even if you look back over the match stats. We and Red Star both managed 12 shots and 5 on target, we had 51% of the ball, but we fouled nearly twice as much as they did. It gets me thinking. I don't tell my teams to go out kicking the opposition about, but we do pick up a lot of cards and my Santos side broke the record for number of booking points picked up in a PSL season. The only explanation that I can think of is my philosophy. I like battlers. I like players who'd rather stick a foot in than shy away from a challenge. Maybe days like this are inevitable when you approach football like I do. Maybe my approach is fundamentally wrong, I don't know. All I know is that even with 11 men we would've been beaten fair and square today and I've got to do better.



Tribune Leclerc (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 128.5)


I'm sitting in the Tribune Leclerc stand in Stade Abbé-Deschamps. Right at the back of the balcony against the back wall. I can see the entire pitch from up here without even turning my head. Why is it that Managers don't sit up here? Why don't we direct the match from on high where it's easier to see the shape of the teams? I stroke Burnie, who's curled up asleep on the seat to my right. Not sure where Meatloaf's got to though, somebody let him out before.


"I wouldn't worry about me", says Meatloaf. Or... Is that Meatloaf? I turn my head to the left to see that it is indeed him strolling on his hind legs up the row of seats towards me: A 6 foot cat in full victorian English garb, top hat and all. "May I?" He asks as he reaches me, gesturing to the adjoining seat. I pull it down for him and watch him sit. I've always liked the markings on Meatloaf's fur. He's mostly light brown but with dark stripes all over his face and body, including two v-shaped lines above his eyes that resemble eyebrows. And then there's the white trail from his chin down to his big white belly and the trademark white hourglass shape above his nose.


"Do you want to know your problem, Franjo?" He asks casually. I say nothing. "You're too reactionary, my friend. Your emotions too often rule your decisions." I look at him quizzically, but not wanting to piss off what is by definition a "Big Cat", I wait patiently for him to continue. He takes off his hat and holds it on his lap as he looks into my eyes sympathetically. "Take this afternoon for example: You lost a football match and questioned your own philosophy on the game as a result. Stick by your convictions, for crying out loud. If you want battling footballers, you've got to accept the rough with the smooth. You're going to pick up more points from losing positions than you would with other less..." He clears his throat as he searches for the word and a fur ball the size of a tennis ball plops out, bounces off the top of his hat and splats onto the ground. "...Combative players," He continues as if nothing had happened, "But they're also going to bloody battle, aren't they?"


"But I don't want to be a Manager that sends his side out to break legs and pick up 10 cards a game, that's not how I want to win."


"Have you explicitly told one of your sides to do that?" Asks Meatloaf, raising his 'eyebrows'.


"Well, no... Well, maybe... A couple of times at most, but no. No, not usually."


"Then there's a world of difference, isn't there. You aren't creating the new Crazy Gang, you just surround yourself with players who want to win and aren't afraid to put their bodies on the line to do it." He puts a paw on my shoulder. "Don't overthink this one, old friend." He winks and gives me a broad smile. I smile back at my over-sized moggie.


After a moment, I ask "How do you know about the Crazy Gang? You were born in... 2012-ish?" Meatloaf looks taken aback.


"Wikipedia mainly", he replies curtly, drumming his claws absent-mindedly on the top of his hat. I nod slowly and we sit in silence for a moment. If anything his answer raises more questions. I turn back to him, ready to ask another, when without warning he leans over and licks me right on the bridge of my nose. His breath smells of fish and his tongue is unpleasantly coarse.


"What the fuck are you..."


"MOW?" he squeaks, his eyes suddenly wide and glazed over. "MOW!" he cries again, almost impatiently. As he leans over and licks my nose a second time my eyes open to see Meatloaf, the real Meatloaf, looking down at me curiously.


Seeing me wake, he jumps softly down from my chest onto the floor and starts padding away to his empty food bowl, where he turns and waits patiently for me to follow. I swing my legs out of bed and check the clock on my phone. 1am. Pretty much spot on. I can't have been asleep very long. I stand up and shuffle over to fill the food bowl and Meatloaf digs in delightedly. I give him a scratch behind the ear and smile. He doesn't know it, but he's spot on.


Surprise Heroes (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep129)

I've been in a surprisingly good mood this week. Since I showered off that filthy display against Red Star I've remembered it only as a blip. A single ugly brush stroke on the masterpiece that has been Auxerre's start to the season. I've been in such a good mood that I tied up new contracts with several players: Backup goalies Bingourou Kamara and Anthony Gasnier, right back Issa Samba, who I started the season unsure about but who has proved his worth, and Mike Kakuba, who for some reason I had only given a 2 year contract when he signed a few months ago.


To brighten the mood even further, the draw for the French Cup 7th round is drawn too, with Auxerre pit against AS Tiercé Cheffes, a small semi-pro side. Putting aside the fact that we've already been dumped out of one cup by lower league opposition, this is a really kind draw for us.



And then my good mood plummets when head physio Mathieu Debain walks into my office with a rain cloud over his head. We've suffered yet another long term injury to one of our young stars, this time Alessandro Bassani, our sought after left winger. A broken ankle. He hadn't made it into my team so far but with my faith in Corentin Tirard ever dwindling, he was getting closer. He's now out for 4 months, which is a big shame for a young lad with a lot of potential.



So that's sufficiently brought me down ahead of our away match at Clermont Foot, who are 9th in Ligue 2 and only 4 points behind us. Clermont manager Corrine Diacre is the only female manager in the league and she's something of a local hero, having been in charge of the club for over 7 years and making them almost a nailed on top 7 side.



Unsurprisingly I've got some changes to make today after my usual central midfield partnership both got themselves a 1 match suspension with their sendings off last week. Sissako and Raf come in to replace Fomba and Goujon while I heed the advice of my cat Meatloaf and stick with the system that I named after him.



39 seconds. 39 seconds is all it takes for L'AJA to put together a passing move, for Phil Foden to cut inside with the ball, to lay it off and for Abdoulaye Sissako to fire us ahead from 12 yards. 39 seconds. 2 minutes and 58 seconds later we're 2 up. While I stand gobsmacked on the touchline, Joël tees the ball up for Sissako again and the midfielder takes a touch and smashes it goalwards from 20 yards. Unfortunately the ball takes a wicked deflection on the way into the net off centre back Nathan Dekoké and goes down as an own goal, but Sissako clearly has a point to prove today.


As the half hour mark approaches we're still winning 2-0, but Clermont are trying to find a way back. Doucouré switches off for a second while marking lone striker and former Lazio, Aston Villa and Czech Republic player Libor Kozák and he times his run through the defence perfectly just as Jobello feeds a pass through to him. Kozák stabs the ball at goal but Lenogue makes a good save, sending the ball behind for a corner. We go slightly narrower to try and prevent that kind of chance from reoccurring and the scores remain unchanged at half time.


The second half is a quiet one. Hicham Aidir has now turned in 3 goalless performances in a row, which normally wouldn't make me bat an eyelid, but he's Hicham bloody Aidir. I bring him off on the hour to give Montiel another run out, while Tirard comes on for the last 15 minutes. In the end though an extremely dominant performance allows us to come away from Clermont with a 2-0 victory.



https://youtu.be/TkoN6mPj1p8


Abdoulaye Sissako, who I didn't think much of yesterday, has turned heads with that performance. Arguably 2 goals in 4 minutes, a Man of the Match award and a Team of the Week selection all from a day's work makes me want to keep a very close eye on him.



We're meant to be playing our Cup match against AS Tiercé Cheffes during the international break in a couple of weeks time, but I request to have it postponed. Zoun, Aidir, Raf and Lenogue have all been called up by their respective countries and although our striker and keeper are probably due a rest, the other 2 could well feature and I want them available.




The good news in regards to our position in the league is that Bourg-en-Bresse have only taken 1 point from their last 2 matches, which has allowed us to emerge from the chasing pack and just about catch up with them, only 2 points behind. The bad news is that our next opponents are the only team so far that have been able to beat them: Groupe Sportif Consolat, who join us for a "Fan Day" in Stade Abbé-Deschamps.

They're 6th and performing far above their predicted level, having been one of the favourites to go down this year. They were very nearly relegated last year too, but stormed back from a 1-2 home loss to win the relegation playoff 5-3 on aggregate against GFC Ajaccio.



Adama bruises his shin in training the day before this one, which is annoying as it coincides with a suspension for Faouzi Hikem, who picked up his 3rd booking in 10 games as we beat Clermont Foot. Our entire left side needs to change and I'm already worried about this rejuvenated Consolat side. The play a narrow diamond 4-4-2 so we're going to Project: Meatloaf Mk II. We'll play ultra narrow to counter their strategy as we so often do, and in terms of personnel Mike Kakuba starts in defence for the first time since his injury 2 and a half months ago when he was ousted by Doucouré, who will move across to left back where he's fairly competent. Tirard will come in on the left wing, where he'll provide width while Doucouré just stays back and keeps his defensive position as I don't want to overstretch him. You'll also notice that Lamine Fomba and Loïc Goujon are back from suspension and will be watching from the bench. Let this be a lesson to everyone else that fancies an early bath.



I knew we'd be in for a scrappy match and the first 25 minutes is predictably tight. I want us to take control though so we'll push on slightly. It nearly works after just 5 minutes when Samba wins the ball 25 yards out on the right and chips a lovely cross to the far post on the turn. Of all people Joël rises to get his head to the ball and sends it looping back across goal towards the top corner, but it clips against the bar and falls to Phil Foden, before Bozic steps in and scoops the ball into his arms. Consolat have their own chance a minute or so later when striker Umut Bozok hits a pot shot from about 25 yards and sends it oh so wide.


With 6 minutes to play before the break Sissako drives forward into opposition territory. He spots Phil Foden in a central position 25 yards out and fires the ball into his feet. Foden controls it well and shows good vision by playing a little reverse ball to Tirard, who's in space on the edge of the box. The winger gets the ball out of his feet and boots it straight down the centre of goal, but it has enough power to take it past Bozic and into the net. Well I never. It may only be temporary, but Corentin Tirard's just put us top of the league.


The second half, much like in our last match, is quiet. Again, Montiel comes on for the worryingly subdued Hicham Aidir, but the match ends with only a single goal scored.



https://youtu.be/4-noAj8RqAU


The board are disappointed that the fan day game wasn't a 5-4 end to end barnstormer of a match, but by definition most of the crowd got their tickets for free so they got what they paid for.



That sort of thing won't cause club attendances to skyrocket, but do you know what will? AJ Auxerre sitting on top of Ligue 2 with 15 games played, separated from 2nd place Bourg-en-Bresse by 3 goals. Now we just need to stay here for 23 more games. How difficult can that be?



Nightmare Fuel (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep130)


"Franjo, rumours have been circulating in the papers that you're under consideration for the Montpellier job, is there any truth in that?"


"Well you'd have to ask Montpellier that, wouldn't you?" I smirk. I quite enjoy riling up the press, especially young reporters that are still wet behind the ears. The young man goes bright red.


"B-but they do need someone with your experience in fighting relegation?" He replies. It's more of a statement than a question.


"They certainly do need someone, but my cats have only just finished marking my new flat with their scent, so I'd feel bad about leaving at the minute." A chuckle goes around the press conference.


I've heard the rumours, of course I have. Montpellier have sacked their former defender-turned-Manager Daniel Congré with the club in 18th, having just lost 0-3 3 games on the bounce. To be fair those matches were against Lyon, PSG and Monaco so I think it's a bit harsh. I've got no interest in the job though. I don't see why I would leave a club so clearly on an upwards trajectory for one in free fall.




This is yet another problem with International breaks. In the age of social media and 24 hour news, 2 weeks without football sends fans into catatonic states of boredom that the media combat by making mountains out of molehills, by which I mean making news out of rumours. I don't mind them though, it's quite fun watching the press grope around for any kind of clue they can find. The only news I care about is AJ Auxerre news and after playing in his 15th game for the club, Ivorian playmaker Joël Soumahoro has received a small pay bump. Nice one, Joël.



The next lip smacking piece of gossip making it's way around the Centre de Formation is that the French 8th round draw has been made. We're still yet to play our 7th round tie but if we win we'll be up against Derby de la N77 rivals ESTAC Troyes, who I've already seen off twice since I arrived in France.



There's good and bad news on the injury front: 4th choice striker Romain Montiel sprains his ankle in training and will miss up to 4 weeks of action. This isn't ideal as he joins Florian Ayé and Nathan Andre on our list of injured strikers and at the moment Hicham Aidir is on an uncharacteristic dry spell. The good news is that Florian is back in light training after his horrific achilles injury, but the other bad news is that he's still a long way off being ready to play. Even after he rejoins full training he's going to need nurturing back to fitness.




I then get a rap-rap-rap on my office door. It's Marc François, a versatile forward from the academy. He's unhappy with his game-time and wants a loan move, but Captiste talks him round with one of his trademark hypnotic captain's speeches. It's ironic that Marc came to see me about his lack of game time actually, because with my 3 back ups injured, he's next in line and will actually be on the bench today as we travel to Stade Malherbe Caen.




Stade Malherbe Caen have without a doubt been the League's biggest underachievers so far. They finished 18th in Ligue 1 last year, only 3 points from safety and were predicted to win Ligue 2 at a canter as they bounce straight back, but with over a third of the season gone they're sat in 10th place below several teams that were predicted to struggle, like Groupe Sportif Consolat, Red Star and US Orléans. This is one of those situations that feels like a trap though. The predicted title winners lying dormant in midtable, lulling me into a false sense of security before suddenly switching it on and battering us.



I only make a couple of changes after our generally fine performance before the break. Faouzi Hikem is back from suspension and replaces Mike Kakuba, who struggled at centre back on a rare start, with Mamadou Doucouré sliding back into the centre to accommodate Hikem. I also bring in Lamine Fomba for Joël, who picked up his 3rd yellow in 10 matches last time out and is suspended for this one. Adama Ba's fit again but is kept out of the lineup by Tirard, who might actually be ready to show me why he was touted as one of our best players when I joined and as I mentioned before it's a first call up the match day squad for Marc François.



As I feared, Stade Malherbe Caen come roaring out of the traps. With just 3 minutes gone they put together a fine passing move on the edge of our box and Abergel ends up with the ball at his feet in space to the left of goal. He shoots for the near top corner with Lenogue hideously out of position but luckily the ball bounces back off the post and is cleared by Samba. 5 minutes later we push forward ourselves. Fomba slides the ball forward to Aidir 25 yards out, who turns and chips it beautifully into Foden's path. Foden just needs to direct the ball into either corner and we'll take the lead, but he fires it straight at Didillon, who palms it around the post. We go on the counter as aside from that chance, the hosts have been pushing hard so far.


10 minutes later Caen find themselves with a corner on the left and their Egyptian former Anderlecht winger Trezeguet goes over to take it. He swings the ball over to the far post and Portuguese centre back Pedro Mendes rises above his marker Aidir to head home the opening goal. Another 5 minutes pass before we win a free kick on the left wing, level with the opposition box. Tirard whips a cross in which Sissako flicks on, sending the ball looping over defenders and onto the boot of Phil Foden, who volleys it against the bar from 6 yards. This might not be our day. It's definitely not Phil's.


It's not Trezeguet's either. He gets stretchered off with only 27 minutes on the clock and it looks like a particularly nasty one. He was sprinting into our half with space all around him before suddenly hitting the deck, howling in pain. Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious. At half time I bring off Raf, who's still pretty knackered after spending the last 2 weeks playing for Madagascar's National side. Goujon comes on in his place and we head back out to attack.


10 minutes after the restart I hook Tirard, who's been quiet again. I can't give him many more chances. Ba comes on and as he and Foden will be cutting in we'll have our full backs charge up the wings beyond the 2 wide men. The change takes only 8 minutes to pay off, when Ba holds the ball up in the centre, plays ahead of the rampaging Hikem and he floats in a brilliant cross to the far post, where Foden arrives to head in the equaliser. Game on.


With a quarter of an hour to play I bring François on for his debut in place of Aidir, who's in the middle of a really bad spell at this point. The game is still tied at 1-1 heading for the end of 90 minutes, but then something utterly terrible happens. Bouzat receives the ball on the left wing and plays what I can only describe as a "Pea-roll-cross" straight at our near post. Lenogue has a howler, misjudging the shitty, trickling little pass and letting it bounce off his shin and out to Osaguona, who tucks the ball into the empty net from point blank range.


Lenogue feels the full force of my wrath in the changing room after the referee's whistle confirms our 1-2 defeat. Top of the league and minutes away from a good point against one of the best quality squads in the league and we're undone by a stupid mistake like that. I'm fuming.



https://youtu.be/9hSjtuoCHiI



Malherbe Caen's victory came at a huge price I'm afraid. Trezeguet's injury is about as serious as they come - He's damaged his cruciate ligaments and is almost certainly out for the season. It's never good to see something like that, even happening to a rival. At least we get to blow that result away with a nice easy Cup tie against lower league opposition though. Our last cup match didn't go all that well but that was against a side that narrowly missed out on Promotion to Ligue 2, whereas Tiercé Cheffes are down in the regionals somewhere.




I'm that confident that I'm making 11 changes again. Kamara starts in net so that Lenogue can spend some time in the stands thinking about what he's done, while Aguilar, Kakuba, Tower and Mombris make up the back 4. Fomba and Basauri are our central midfield duo with Zoun, Chassaing and Tirard behind François. We'll look to control the match and play some fluid football with Project: Meatloaf. I 100% expect a victory.



We get off to a good start under 10 minutes in when Zoun releases Captain-for-the-day Aguilar down the right, who sends a cross into the 6 yard box. Romero heads it away as far as Zoun, who chips it back into the mixer again and this time François powers a header against the bar, but when the centre back Ugo Henry swings a boot to clear the ball he smashes it against his team mate Gérald Lafon. The ball bounces straight past the keeper to open the scoring. The own goal's credited to Henry, which really confuses me as he was the one specifically kicking away from the goal. Best not to overthink it though
.

10 minutes later after Tirard's free kick is cleared, Zoun crosses the ball into the Tiercé box again and Kakuba heads it goalwards, but it's blocked by a defender on the line. With 5 minutes to go before the break we go close again when another Aguilar cross is once again headed against the bar by full debutant François, but seconds later Mombris drills a low cross into the box and Zoun's tripped as he goes to latch onto it, winning a penalty. Tirard dispatches it coolly into the bottom corner to double our lead.


If I were the Tiercé boss I'd want nothing more than an opportunity to regroup at the break, but being the complete set of bastards we are, we don't let them get there. With under a minute of normal time to play Zoun drills a low cross in from the right byline. In an attempt to hoof the ball clear, Lafon, who contributed to the opening own goal, smacks the ball - Against fellow centre back Thibaut Bonnet, sending it careening into the bottom corner. Oh lads.


I'm willing to bet that our half time team talk was a lot more laid back than our opposition's. In all fairness they look more resolute after the break and it takes 18 whole minutes for us to add our fourth. An outswinging Tirard corner is headed back across goal by Zoun at the far post and nodded in by Lamine Fomba. Job done, I bring off Chassaing and introduce Hicham Aidir in the hopes that he'll break his goal drought. He doesn't, but you can't blame me for trying. 4-0 it ends.



https://youtu.be/XuiFmCsEiqg


This match will have been nightmare fuel for a lot of the Tiercé players, especially Gérald Lafon, who orchestrated both own goals without being credited with one. We'll be facing our rivals ESTAC Troyes in the 8th round, which I can't wait for. We can win that. We can keep progressing. Even though we've slipped back down to 2nd in Ligue 2 below new chart toppers Angers SCO, which is clear evidence that I should focus on the league, I can't help but wonder if this could be the year that I finally get my hands on a cup. I mean, it's almost certainly not as Monaco and PSG seem to keep this particular trophy between them on some sort of timeshare scheme, but I can still dream.



Hicham's Hurdle (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep131)


“I wouldn’t worry about it, Hicham,” I reassure him, handing the striker a cup of tea and taking my own round to the other side of my desk. “Every striker goes through a bit of a quiet spell. And every winger, midfielder, defender, keeper... Everyone has rough patches. Did I ever tell you about a certain 3 months of my spell in Katowice?”


“I think so”, he replies, blowing on his tea to cool it down, “No wins?”


“Not a one. It’s frustrating but you do come through it eventually. Unless you’re Nikica Jelavić. Nikica Jelavić is the only one I can think of who never came through it.” I grin at Hicham, who chuckles quietly before taking a sip of his tea. “I just wanted to have a chat and make sure you’re not beating yourself up over it, that’s all.”


Hicham nods. “It is frustrating but I’ll come through it. Thanks boss.”



I don’t worry about Hicham Aidir. I know full well that he'll be banging them in again soon as long as he backs himself. For the time being though I’m going to give him a bit of a different role for our next match against RC Strasbourg. Strasbourg are down in the relegation zone after a difficult first half of the season in which they were projected to finish in lower midtable. We’ll be starting with a standard Project: Meatloaf with Lenogue in net, Samba, Captiste, Doucouré and Hikem across the back, Fomba and Raf in midfield and Foden, Joël and Ba behind Aidir. Seeing as Aidir’s not scored and frankly hasn’t played at all well in 4 games now, he’ll play as a target man today. If he isn’t scoring we can at least get him involved and use his physical presence to hold the ball up so that he can play in his team mates. We'll need to get plenty of bodies around him as Strasbourg play with an intriguing 3-2-3-2 featuring a sweeper, so if anything they have too many players in defence.



Their 8 man defence doesn't help them in the early stages. It takes 7 minutes for us to break Strasbourg's resolve when Hikem's outswinging corner is headed clear as far as Issa Samba. The right back takes the ball down well, steps into the box and clips it into the top corner. The early goal settles us down nicely and we dominate the first half hour with the visitors barely able to get a look in.


With 10 minutes to go before half time, Foden whips a cross in from the right and Ba arrives at the far post to get a header on goal, but Konaté heads it off the line. He does well but not well enough, as he realises when the ball bounces straight back to Ba and he volleys in our 2nd from close range. Less than 2 minutes later we go 3 up courtesy of a long Foden ball from a deep free kick that's nodded on into the 6 yard box by Captiste and tucked home by the unmarked Faouzi Hikem. What a first half.


Strasbourg start the second half much better but don't really manage any good chances. The next best chance is ours once again when Foden hits a free kick from 25 yards out, curling it against the bar. The ball's cleared but we work it back up to the box where Foden gets back on it. He squares it for Joël, who puts his laces through the ball from the edge of the box, sending it fizzing into the bottom corner for 4-0. This is an absolute massacre. I give a run out to François for the last 20 minutes and we come away from the game with a resounding win.



While we were busy giving Strasbourg plenty of kick off practice, 3rd place Bourg-en-Bresse were defeating League leaders Angers SCO, which suits us perfectly as we were previously below Angers on goal difference and above Bourg on goal difference. That result lifts us back up to the top of the table, with Bourg-en-Bresse snapping at our heels just 7 goals behind. Angers actually slip down to 4th below Stade de Reims, who beat CS Sedan Ardennes to join the top 3 party. Seriously though, the top 4's starting to break away from the rest and it's getting pretty heated up here.



Unsurprisingly over half of that dominant Auxerre team make it into the Ligue 2 Team of the Week, including the entire back 4 of Samba, Captiste, Doucouré and Hikem, who are joined by Joël Soumahoro and Adama Ba. It's actually a bit disappointing that Phil Foden isn't thought to warrant a place as he had a great game, and although Hicham Aidir's performance as a target man was much better than he's turned in in a few weeks, there's no room in the league's elite side for him either.



Next up is CS Sedan Ardennes at their place, fresh from the aforementioned defeat against Stade de Reims. Our form's still a little bit hit and miss so another win today would be much appreciated. 3 wins in a row would represent some much needed consistency and momentum.

We'll be without last match's first goalscorer Issa Samba as the booking he picked up against Strasbourg took him to 3 in his last 10, so Ruben Aguilar comes in. Other than that though we're unchanged.



It's a scrappy start with both teams prodding and testing each other out in the opening stages. The first decent chance is Aldo Kalulu's pot shot 25 yards out from our goal, but he puts it wide. 10 minutes later though Ardennes' centre back Milan hoofs the ball into our box for Kalulu to chase and as he gets to the ball, he's tripped by Captiste. The home side have a penalty. Kalulu steps up himself and powerfully converts the spot kick to the top left of Lenogue's goal. 0-1.


We were undone by a long ball into a channel while our defence was pushed a bit too high, so we go on the counter and play a bit narrower after the goal, but at half time we're still trailing. I try to give the lads some quiet confidence by telling them that they've been unlucky, but 15 seconds after the restart Kalulu tees up Konaté on the edge of our box, who drives the ball low at goal and forces a good save from Lenogue. That could've been game over.


10 minutes later we still aren't getting a sniff apart from the odd pot shot. Faupala barges down the wing past Aguilar with power and whips a cross in from the left byline, which Bettoni meets at the far post, nodding the ball into the back of the net for 0-2. Bollocks. We go all out attack from that point on, pushing our defensive line further up, closing down more to try and win the ball back further up the pitch. None of it's to any avail. I bring on Zoun for Foden on the right as an extra injection of pace, but still nothing.


With 25 minutes to go Kalulu plays a fantastic ball into the box for Bettoni. The winger's 12 yards out and has the whole goal to aim at. He has to score - But he skies his shot. That's the last real action of the match and the only positive to come out of this game is that it finishes 0-2 and not 0-3, because it really should be.



I feel like I'm digging a hole on the beach while the tide's coming in. At times it seems like a perfectly good hole but then a wave comes along, fills it half back up with sand and I'm just left to shrug my shoulders and start digging again. It's quite infuriating that we can't put a run of results together. Don't get me wrong, that loss leaves us in 2nd place in the league and that still absolutely eclipses my earlier expectations for this season, but when you've got a squad of such clear quality you need consistency. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it again, that's only our 5th loss in almost half a season after all. Time will tell I suppose. We've now got 3 matches to go before the winter break and I want 9 points on the board so that we can take some momentum into 2022. Let's get it done.



The Swedish Behemoth and The Man on Fire (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep132)

Faouzi Hikem's really starting to grow on me, you know. When I came in he was overhyped maybe a little too much, leaving me underwhelmed with what I saw in person. Like Avatar. I watched closely and beneath the obvious positives I saw the flaws in his execution. A lot like Avatar. When you think about it, Avatar just wasn't that good a film. Faouzi's had a pretty good start to the season though and has had a good November in particular, which sees him scoop 3rd place in the Ligue 2 Player of the Month award, with the winner and runner up both having had fantastic months for Angers.



With the winter break mere weeks away it's time to play our French Cup 8th round tie against our rivals ESTAC Troyes, a side that I've enjoyed playing against very much in my Auxerre career so far. The match at the Stade de l'Aube also happens to be my 200th in football. Where does the time go, eh? The local media are trying to hype it up a bit but to be honest it's just another match for me. The French Cup represents our last chance of having a good cup run this season and I want a professional performance to see off our pesky neighbours.




Troyes recently booted their manager Benoît Cheyrou after their not so stellar run of games left them languishing near the bottom of the table. In his place I'll line up today against former Le Havre stalwart Thierry Uvenard, who's taking control of the first team until a new manager is appointed.



Thierry's got his own ideas about how the team should be playing and will set up with a novel narrow 4-1-2-2-1 formation against us today. In response I'm going to be mixing things up a bit myself. We'll go with a narrow variant on Project: Burnie Mk III, but instead of a flat back 3 I'll be pushing one of the centre backs forward into the base of midfield, giving us a sturdy 2-1-2 in the centre to take care of the potential threat of those 2 attacking midfielders. I want us bombing up the flanks through our wing backs as it's where the home side will be most exposed. The full team is Lenogue in net, Captiste and Doucouré at the back, Samba, Raf and Hikem in front of them, Fomba and Goujon in the centre of midfield and we'll have Joël behind the 2 strikers. Except we don't exactly... Have 2 strikers, do we? We have 1 out of form target man and 3 injured back ups. Still, this seems as good a time as any to go with a front 2 as maybe it'll help Aidir out to have someone up there with him, so I'm dead set on the idea. After careful deliberation I decide to throw Abdoulaye Sissako up top. I mean, yes he's a midfielder, yes he's never played a game as a striker in his life, but he is a hard worker and a good physical presence. All I want him to do is close down the defenders and play in Hicham, so he's only really an elevated ball winning midfielder.



20 minutes in we're handed a gift wrapped chance when a bad back pass from Martial leaves Sissako one on one with Troyes' keeper. He steps around Bernardoni and tries to clip the ball in from a narrow angle, but he can only hit the outside of the post. I think that's probably a good indicator of how this little experiment's going to turn out, isn't it.


We are at least dominating the first half though and as the half hour mark edges closer we put together a patient passing move that ends up back with Captiste on the half way line. He brings the ball forwards in acres of space before firing it over onto the right wing, where Samba's waiting to nod it inside. Joël controls the ball well and brings it past the centre back, leaving him clear to drill it into the far bottom corner. Get in, Joël. 1-0.


In first half injury time Troyes get the ball in the back of the net themselves when an Azamoum corner comes into the mixer. Dingomé does his best Maradona impression and palms the ball skilfully into the net, but it won't count. We've had the upper hand so far so I tell the Auxerre team at half time to close down the opposition more to force mistakes and really make our domination count.


With nearly a quarter of an hour of the second half gone we're playing some really nice football. Goujon passes to Joël 25 yards out and he pauses on the ball just for a beat to draw the defensive midfielder out of position. Then he slips the ball through the central channel for Hicham Aidir, who places it first time into the bottom corner. I've never done the robot before believe it or not, but when the ball hits the back of the net and Aidir sprints away with a broad smile of relief across his face, me and Crouchie... Well... We have a bit of a dance.


With our 2 goal cushion nicely in place I give Lamine Fomba a rest for the last half hour, with Gaizka Basauri coming on to replace him. We have a bit of a scare 10 minutes from time when Azamoum squares the ball for Niané on the edge of our 6 yard box, but he hits the post. Chassaing too makes a late cameo as we come through the match unscathed.



https://youtu.be/veu0_9_9WsM


My 200th game in football has gone absolutely swimmingly, especially thanks to Hicham Aidir's first goal in over 2 months. 8 long matches. It was a massive relief to see him tuck the ball away with that ice-cold precision I've become so accustomed to over the last 16 months. He's timed it well as my experiment to try Sissako as a striker has not gone very well. He tried though, bless him.




Our 3rd consecutive victory over ESTAC Troyes has also sealed us a place in the 9th round of the French Cup, where we'll play Sportive Granvillaise, so sayeth the draw.




Our next match is a biggie. Angers SCO are 3rd in Ligue 2 and on the same points as us, with a goal difference of 12 to our 14. With Bourg-en-Bresse 3 points ahead of both of us at the top of the table, this is a great opportunity for both sides to catch up to the league leaders as we come to the half way point of the season.

Unfortunately we'll be without Faouzi Hikem though as he's strained his abdominal muscles in the gym and will miss both of our last 2 matches before the winter break. On the upside though, all signs are that strikers Florian Ayé, Nathan Andre and Romain Montiel are just days away from rejoining full training.




Call me a boring sod but I'd be happy not to lose this game. Of course a win would be ideal but I'm not going to push too hard for it. We'll line up with our standard, steady Project: Meatloaf Mk II with Phil Foden and Adama Ba coming back in for Loïc Goujon and Abdoulaye Sissako as we get our inside forwards back onto the wings. Mike Kakuba will come in for Hikem and I'll once again be looking to Mamadou Doucouré to fill in at left back. With full training looming and after half a season on the sidelines with ligament damage, last year's top scorer Florian Ayé makes the bench for the first time.



Much of the match is a tense, scrappy affair. In fact in the first hour the only decent chance from either side is 25 minutes in when former Sunderland stopper Mika catches the ball from a Samba cross and promptly rolls it straight out to Phil Foden. The Stopfordian midfielder tries his luck from 25 yards but hits his shot straight against a defender's legs. Gripping stuff.


Despite our efforts to control the game in the second half to put the visitors under a little pressure, we're still goalless with 20 minutes to go. I have a choice: I can keep us as we are and drift through to the goalless draw that I would have taken before kick off, or I can roll the dice and try and nick a winner. Against my better judgement I signal for Florian Ayé to warm up. We're going for it. Joël comes off and Florian finally steps onto the pitch to start his season, alongside Hicham Aidir in a 4-2-4 formation. We'll exploit the wings, float crosses into our 2 big strikers and play direct to them. Come on lads.


Sometimes everything just comes together exactly like you hoped it would. Sometimes you roll the dice and come up with 2 sixes. This isn't one of those times. 3 minutes after our tactical change, Trincão holds the ball up 25 yards out and draws out Captiste. Just for a second, our defence falls asleep and that's all the time Josué needs to slip between Raf and Kakuba and dart into the space that our Captain's left inside the box. The former Porto and Basel midfielder takes a touch and fires the ball low into the far corner. It's 0-1.


I let out a groan. I've done this. Me and my greed. We could have escaped with a very good point but now we're behind and in danger of falling behind the top 2. We go on the attack. A couple of minutes later Angers hit us on the counter attack and Trincão gets to the left byline before drilling a cross in to the near post. Pépé arrives but can only head the ball into the side netting. It's a very close call.


We can't lose our heads. I tell the lads to start closing down like they've never closed down before. I don't want Angers to get a sniff of this ball for the rest of the match. 75 minutes turns to 80, then 85, then 90. And then Phil Foden plays a clever pass to Ayé on the edge of the box, who plays it through to Aidir, who slams the ball into the back of the fucking net from 12 yards. He's back. He's officially bloody back.



https://youtu.be/F0cIvU7DQ7w


That was far too close a call and honestly I've got my players to thank for getting us out of that mess. I went into the match wanting a draw and either cockiness or boredom got the better of me. Note to self - Try not to scare me like that again.



So with 19 games played we're officially half way through the season. Bourg-en-Bresse are still leading the way with 39 points after helpfully only getting a draw themselves in the last round of fixtures, while Auxerre and Angers are still 3 points behind, both with superior goal difference to the leaders. Stade de Reims still have to be kept an eye on though as they're only 1 point behind us. We've still got 1 match left before the Winter break and as such can still technically go into the new year at the top of the table. We're playing Valenciennes away.



Mike Kakuba and Lamine Fomba will miss this one through suspension after picking up the usual 3 yellows in their last 10 games, but Andre and Mounier are back in full training as I'm suddenly spoilt for choice for strikers. Well not quite as 3 of them are still massively lacking in fitness, but it still makes a nice change. I'm also ambushed in the corridor by my mountainous centre back Godspower Tower, who thinks that his name deserves to be on the teamsheet more often. Whilst I agree in principle that his name should be shared far and wide and maybe put up in lights somewhere, he's just not going to get a look in for me. We agree that he'll be sold in the January transfer window.



“Franjo are you confident for tomorrow?” Pipes up the first journalist at my press conference.


“Yeah, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be confident. We’re in good form and if we play like we have been doing Valenciennes will have trouble stopping us.”


“Do you think that it’s good timing, playing Valenciennes after they’ve sacked their manager Laurent Dufresne?”


“Perhaps. Obviously things haven’t been going well for them but I think we need to expect a reaction. I’m sure the Valenciennes players will want to impress any prospective new managers that are...” I’m silenced by Manon Penot, Auxerre's Press officer, holding one hand out across my mouth while the other holds her mobile to her ear. We sit in silence for a moment. “Are we live?” I mouth to one of the cameramen. He nods, looking as confused as I feel. Manon nods in acknowledgement of her phone and leans right in to my ear.


“They’ve signed Zlatan.” She whispers.


“Excuse me?” I mutter back.


“Valenciennes have appointed Zlatan Ibrahimovic as their new manager” she says, quite breathlessly. I look across the room of journalists, all of whom are looking down at phones, tablets and laptops and muttering to each other.


"He's not a manager", I hiss.


"He is now" she whispers back, "And you're his first opponent."


I've got to say I'm more than a little bit surprised. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has completely dropped off the planet since he left Manchester United and retired in the Summer of 2018. Well, apart from the odd bit of guest punditry for BT Sport. His appointment's knocked me for 6 if I'm honest. I mean, I'm taking on Zlatan in his first ever match as a football manager. How do you approach something like that? What the bloody hell am I meant to expect? I had planned on lining up against Valenciennes' 4-4-2, which was about as predictable as the pissing sunrise, with Project: Burnie Mk III: My go-to formation against such shapes. Now I'm second guessing myself with the new man coming in. Ordinarily I'd say that a smart Manager would just keep his side playing the same shape until he's had a bit of time to figure out what he needs to change, but knowing Zlatan he could just as easily drop some kind of horrifically unpredictable tactical bomb on us that's been 3 and a half years in the making and is powered by sheer self-confidence, charisma and 35 yard fucking bicycle kicks.


In the end I stick with the plan and it's a good job too. Zlatan does stick with the same 4-4-2 system that his predecessor used, so my first sigh of relief of the day is when I see the team sheet. For us, Lenogue starts in net, Captiste, Goujon and Doucouré form the back 3 with Goujon charging out both to break up attacks and to play the ball, Issa Samba and Ruben Aguilar are our wing backs, with Ruben starting on the left because Hikem's out injured and is still faster than our backup left back Mombris, so why the hell not. Sissako and Raf form the midfield duo and Joël plays behind Aidir and Ayé, who gets his first start of the season. I'm taking a bit of a gamble on him as he's still short of fitness, but he could also make all the difference. Captiste will tightly man mark Zlatan's inherited target man Jordan Siebatcheu while Doucouré will mark out his more rounded team mate Nuno Da Costa, and we'll play a fluid counter attacking game. Nathan Andre's back on the bench.


Out on the touchline, I shake hands with Zlatan. It's an odd moment, seeing his moustachioed face smiling down at me in the flesh. Once upon a time, when I was not too much more experienced than he is now, I used to have nightmares that this Swedish Behemoth was punching me in the face, ridiculing me for my inexperience in management and subsequent failure to keep my team afloat. Oh, how the tables have turned. The boot's really on the other foot now, isn't it Zlatan? Watch and learn young rookie as I give you your first lesson in Football Management.



After only a minute the hosts win a corner, but we clear the ball after a poor cross and start a counter attack through Joël, who plays it forward for Aidir. Aidir drives forwards, drawing a centre back over to the left before pulling the ball back into the space inside the box, but Joël calmly places the ball straight at the keeper from 6 yards out, who saves it. Sissako is the first to get to the rebound and tries to finish it from a narrow angle, but Cabezas slides in well to knock the ball against the post and out.


A quarter of an hour later we're playing some nice patient football in Valenciennes' half initiated by Joël and Aidir. We massively outnumber them in the centre and it's showing as we pull them from side to side with our short passes and good movement. Eventually Sissako slides the ball perfectly through the defence and who else but Hicham Aidir chips the ball first time past the keeper. That's 3 goals in 3 games for Hicham now. He's gone from absolutely useless right back to a man on fire.


A couple of minutes later we counter attack once again and once again it starts with some nice interplay by Joël and Aidir. We toy with the Valenciennes midfield and defence before Sissako finds Aidir again on the edge of their box. Aidir darts towards the left hand side of the box with the ball and loses his marker, but drags his shot wide. 10 minutes after that we counter attack for the umpteenth time and again Sissako threads the ball through for Hicham Aidir, who's having an excellent time linking up with the midfielders so far. Aidir takes a touch into the box but Kocik dashes out and catches what turns out to be a tame shot from the Moroccan.


Frustrated by 40 minutes of chasing the ball and tracking back to get back into position after yet another of his side's moves breaks down, central midfielder Abdoul Kaboré sees red before half time for tripping Sissako while he's already on a booking. That can only be good for us in the second half.


The first 20 minutes of the second half are quiet, and then Zlatan makes the change to a narrow 4-3-2. I don't want us to get overpowered in the centre so I bring off Florian Ayé, whose done his fitness the world of good with 65 minutes of football, and replace him with Foden, who drops into midfield to match Valenciennes' trio. We'll focus down the flanks where they're now vulnerable and I tell Captiste to stay on his toes and keep his distance from his marker, because the lumbering and ineffective target man Siebatcheu has been replaced by pure speed machine Terry Osei-Berkoe.


As I said in our previous match, sometimes everything just comes together exactly like you hoped it would. Sometimes you roll the dice and come up with 2 sixes. As I also said in our previous match, this isn't one of those times. For fucks sake. Just 3 minutes after both sides make their tactical changes, Valenciennes work the ball into the box with Da Costa and he's felled by stand-in centre back Loïc Goujon. Penalty. Goujon receives a booking and in front of the home fans, Da Costa blasts the ball straight down the middle from 12 yards to equalise.


In my eyes that equaliser is absolutely undeserved and I'm quite livid. I tell Phil Foden to push forwards alongside Joël for the last 20 minutes. We'll roam from our positions and we'll pass the ball into space to try to unlock the home side's tiring defence. With 5 minutes to go it very nearly pays off - Aidir holds the ball up after we counter from a Valenciennes corner and then slips the ball into space for Joël, who's bombing forward to his right. Joël gets into the area and if he lifts his head he'll see Sissako and Aidir rushing forwards alongside him with absolutely nobody between them and the goal. He keeps his head down and fires a shot wide of the near post. Livid. We go on the attack.


With 90 seconds to play of normal time we win a free kick 35 yards out from goal. Foden plays it short and we work the ball around the box. Joël... Aguilar... To Goujon... Back to Aguilar... AGUILAR!!!


I feel no shame as I sprint down the touchline, hands held aloft. To some it would seem like quite the faux pas to openly celebrate defeating somebody at something you've done 201 times more than they have, especially when it's their first time. In the moment though I couldn't care less. There have been times this season where we've missed that winning mentality. Where we've rolled over and accepted our fates. Not today though. Today the ball fell to our usurped right back, filling in as a makeshift left wing back. Today he was left unmarked just inside the box and had a clear shot at goal. Today he gave me the kind of headache that I love. The kind of headache that you get when you have too many fantastic players to fit into your team.


Here's your lesson, Zlatan: Some days you can do exactly what you need to do. You can even fight back with 10 men, but don't be surprised if the referee's whistle blows and you're left crying in the corner, miserably contemplating the unfairness of life as you watch somebody else have the time of their lives at your expense. You'll get used to it pretty quickly.



https://youtu.be/v5bbzoagIm4



Winter Break (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Meta-sode 132.5)

Sorry guys, that time's come again!


It's a busy week for me and I've had to rush even to finish today's episode on time, so I'm going to take the week before I come back with the Winter break episode. We're bloody 2nd. (2nd!!) in the league and we've got just less than half a season left to make sure we stay there, so it should be an interesting 5 months when I return!


Thanks once again for reading and for all the feedback, I appreciate every message, email and comment I get about this story massively. Anyone wanting to email can get me at [email protected]!


Anyway yeah... Bit weird to start a break on a Wednesday but let's give it a go. I'll be back on Wednesday 13th of March. See you then!


Cheers,


Franjo


Tribune Leclerc - Part 2 (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 132.5.5.5)

I'm sitting in the Tribune Leclerc stand in Stade Abbé-Deschamps. Right at the back of the balcony against the back wall. Burnie’s still curled up on the seat to my right, just a black furry mass, fast asleep. Meatloaf and I have spent a while talking. In all fairness our discussions on tactical shapes and styles haven’t been very enlightening at all as he’s merely a feline figment of my imagination outfitted in full victorian garb, but I’ve been glad of the company. I come here most nights and it can be a quiet and peaceful place, but a lonely one too. Still, after a while we run out of things to talk about.


“…And the penguin says: ‘He’s not an eggplant, he’s retarded!’”


“I don’t get it” says Meatloaf, raising one of the markings on his head that resemble eyebrows.


“No, me neither”, I reply dejectedly. “I thought you might. I heard it on…” My voice trails off as I watch Meatloaf’s eyes start to wander away from mine. He seems to be looking right over my shoulder.


“I have to go, old friend. I’m sorry.” He whispers, suddenly quite panicked. He dons his top hat, stands and hurries away down the aisle, glancing back occasionally.


“What?” I call after him. “Why? What are you…” I turn my head in an attempt to see what spooked the poor moggie and my voice trails away once again. At first it seems as if Burnie has woken up and is looking at me from the adjoining seat with a wide smile. I’ve not seen the 6 foot dream-version of him before but the features check out: Thick black fur, white belly, inexplicable victorian garb, but there’s something not quite right about the way this cat’s looking at me. There’s something familiar about that smile.


“You are doing the finest job, Franjo!” It whispers excitedly. Realisation hits me immediately.
“What the fuck are you doing in my dream, Sylvania?” I growl.


The black cat giggles. “Oh, but you are confused!” She says. “Here!” Before I can respond the cat raises a paw behind it’s head and slaps me hard across the face, leaving my cheek stinging.


I sit bolt upright in bed, my cheek still stinging as my eyes dart around uselessly in the inky black bedroom. I lean over to the bedside table and press my phone’s home button, which illuminates the room with all the subtlety and finesse of a flash bang grenade. I recoil from the light but once my eyes start to adjust I note from the lock screen that it’s 3:30 in the morning. It’s 3:30 in the morning and it’s freezing fucking cold in here. Too cold. As the light of my phone dies away I pull the quilt tighter around myself and survey the room, now able to make out basic shadows.


“There, that’s better!” Squeals one of them.


“Yeah that’s much better actually, thank you.” I reply, keeping my voice as level as I can. “So let me rephrase: What the fuck are you doing in my flat, Sylvania?”


“Our promotion bonus!” She squeals once more, and with that she darts towards the bed and smiles that sickly Cheshire Cat smile. “You are doing the finest job in France, Franjo. We need to discuss our bonus for your inevitable promotion to Ligue 1: Home of the finest football teams in the World!”


“And you thought that inside my flat at half past fucking 3 was the ideal time and place to conduct this meeting, did you?”


She nods vigourously. “I could not sleep, Monsieur Franjo! I was far too excited…”


“CORRECT!” I cut her off loudly, causing Sylvania to jump. “There’s a good way to tell if you’re far too excited about something, Sylvania, and that’s if you’re so excited that you keep breaking into my fucking home.” I swing my legs out of bed and stand up, revealing my Everton branded pyjamas. I watch the corner of Sylvania’s mouth flicker as she sees them, but her expression turns back to shock within a split second. “Now you need to leave.” I say firmly. As my eyes continue to adjust to the darkness I glance through the open bedroom door and notice that the front door of my flat is ajar. “And how do you keep getting in here for fucks sake? After last time the locksmith promised me…” My voice trails away once more as I continue to look around and make another realisation. One that makes my heart drop right through my stomach. “…And where are Meatloaf and Burnie? Where are my fucking cats?”


A Cat-less Christmas (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep133)

6AM, day after Christmas. I throw some clothes on in the dark. It's been about a week since I last saw Sylvania and since I last saw Meatloaf and Burnie. I searched my flat from top to bottom that night but eventually accepted the conclusion that the 2 cats had slipped through the open door and disappeared into the night. After the locksmith came to put 3 brand new and incredibly sturdy types of lock on my front door I installed a cat flap too, in the hopes that they'd reappear. They haven't though. They've not even returned in my dreams. I've been cutting a lonely figure at the top of the Tribune Leclerc stand.


I wasn't really in the mood for Christmas to be honest. I got a couple of texts from members of the Auxerre team but that was about the extent of my Christmas day. I was even less in the mood for certain French tabloids that were linking me to the Caen job, who are the latest club struggling in Ligue 1. I made my intentions to stay perfectly clear.




But today is Boxing day and in order to keep the squad sharp for our cup match against Granville next week, I've lined up a friendly against our B team. Now that our players are starting to come back from an extremely injury hit first half of the season, it's an interesting opportunity for the fringe players to show me what they've got. They seem extremely determined to make the most of it too when a Florian Ayé goal and a Zoun double put the reserves 0-3 up after 33 minutes. We fight back though with goals from Joël and Phil Foden before the break and Hicham Aidir equalises in the second half. With 35 minutes to play I expect us to complete the turnaround, but a late Abdoulaye Sissako strike wins it for the reserves. It's an interesting match and I'm certainly impressed with what I've seen from some of the winning side.



https://youtu.be/Wq43sVh7iyc



Another undesired opportunity presents itself a couple of days later when I'm linked with the vacant Stade de Reims job. To be honest though I feel like even though they were recently a Ligue 1 team, I'd be taking a step down by joining them. I publicly deny that there's any truth in the rumours, which makes the board so happy that they offer me a year's contract extension. I sign happily. This is the offer I wanted.



There's a little bit of transfer activity before the Granville game: Zoun's wanted by FC Lorient in the top tier and they put down a £1.5M bid, but I reject it. I'm still waiting for him to impress me but I know that there's still a lot more to come from our pacy Burkinabe winger. I do accept a loan bid from Belgian Pro League side Cercle Brugge for Nathan Andre though. The young striker was unlucky in slipping a disc and being ruled out through a time when I would have gladly given him an extended run in the first team, but now that Aidir's remembered where the goal is and Ayé's back from his injury, I think Nathan's development will be boosted by a spell in Belgium's top flight.




And so it's time for the French Cup 9th round: A glamourous away tie against French CFA 2 side US Granville.



I want not only a win today but a good performance to boot. We're going with a fluid attacking variant of Project: Meatloaf. The lads that were suspended for our last match are back and Hikem's back from injury too. We are missing Raf, who's suspended and Tower, who's picked up a virus though. Kamara gets a rare start in net and will be protected by a back 4 of Samba, Captiste, Doucouré and Hikem. Sissako and Goujon form a battling midfield and we'll have Joël behind lone striker Florian Ayé, with Foden cutting in from the right and Zoun doing likewise from the left. I'm pretty interested to see how our in-demand winger takes to the position having never played there professionally.



We get off to a great start when little Phil Foden curls a close range free kick in over the wall only 8 minutes into the match. 13 minutes later he plays a part in our second too, taking an indirect free kick short to Joël, who plays a defence-splitting pass through to Ayé in the box. Ayé takes a shot first time on his weaker foot and finds the back of the net to double our lead.


10 minutes from the break Florian nearly bags his second after another fantastic ball from Joël gets him in behind the defence. He jinks past a challenge but drags his shot just wide of the far post.
With the match looking pretty much done with half an hour left I hook 2 of our booked players, Samba and Goujon, and bring on Aguilar and Fomba. A few minutes later Ayé gets his head to a Kamara goal kick and nods the ball on for Foden, who runs through to the edge of the area and shoots. The ball hits the post, comes back, hits the goalkeeper on the back of the head and bounces out for a corner. It's a decent chance but the resulting corner comes to nothing.


With 5 minutes left Auxerre put together a great passing move and Foden plays a through ball into the box for Ayé, who drills it into the net to make it 3-0. It's a one sided game all round and I'm pleased with the performance and the result.



https://youtu.be/HLhcPdgCTM4



The French Cup 10th round draw pits us against Bordeaux, which is an extremely exciting prospect. A high profile match against a big Ligue 1 club is just what I was hoping for.



The next week or so is heavy with minor transfer activity. Fabien Fonrose is a player that I thought I might use as a backup centre back this season but I'm not sure he's set foot on the pitch yet. He's allowed to move on loan to Strasbourg.



There are also loan moves for young striker Abdoulaye Traoré, who joins French National side SO Romorantin, as well as Daniel Garza and Paul Mullan, 2 youngsters who I don't think are longed for the Auxerre first team. They travel back to their native North America on loan with Ottawa and Phoenix respectively.

Corentin Tirard, the forgotten man to some extent after his standout performances in last year's appalling Auxerre side, is unhappy with his recent lack of first team football. I sit him down and tell him that Adama Ba's playing too well on the left wing, which is a bit of a stretch to be fair, but Corentin seems satisfied with my explanation. I'm fairly sure I'll be letting him go in the Summer anyway.



I set up another friendly against the reserves to see what we've learned from our new attacking variant. Aidir, Raf and Lenogue come into the first team as we tear our second string apart. Zoun gets us off to a flyer and then after Florian Ayé equalises, Hicham and Foden both score quick fire braces to give us a glossy 5-1 win.



https://youtu.be/6Yx6EhqOlj8


Romain Montiel is then ruled out for 7-9 weeks with shin splints. I'm a bit gutted for him but again, he's not getting anywhere near my first team unless we have another injury crisis so we should be OK.



A couple of players that won't be leaving right now are Ruben Aguilar, who we receive 3 bids of around £1.5M for from Eibar, Alavés and Atlético Pamplona, and Godspower Tower. True, Aguilar hasn't been a regular starter since the unbelievable and unpredictable rise of Issa Samba, but if I'm going to let Ruben go it'll be for a substantially higher price.


Godspower does want to leave as he's also not featured as much as he'd like. The only offers we've received though are a non-negotiable £325k bid from Freamunde, which isn't enough, and a loan offer from Clermont Foot, but they only want him as back up and that's only going to decrease his value in the long run. I'm holding out for a higher fee or a loan with a promise of more regular football before I let our towering centre back go.

Bourg-en-Bresse are our next opponents in a 1st v 2nd title showdown. It's unfortunate for the league leaders that they're our first opponents in Ligue 2 since my own personal diabolical Christmas period, because I've got a lot of frustration to take out on them. I've not seen my cats in weeks and a win over Bourg-en-Bresse would be extremely therapeutic for me. Let's get the second half of the season started off right, shall we?



Showdown (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep134)

“This match,” I begin, “Is going to define our entire season.” I’m pacing back and forth at the front of the changing room, all Auxerrois eyes fixed on me. “What are we doing? Are we just enjoying our luck or are we going for promotion? For the title? Because if we’re just here for the ride and we lose to Bourg-en-Bresse today, we’ll be 6 points behind them by the time that final whistle blows.” I stop pacing and stand, arms crossed, looking and feeling more serious than I’ve been in quite a while. “But if we really want this, if we really want to play at the Parc des Princes and the Stade Louis II next season and test ourselves against the best in the country, we can. We can bloody do it by beating these and going top. We’ve got the goal difference for it, but we need to put down a marker and it needs to be now. Not next week, not next month and not in the bloody run in. Now.”



The lads seem riled after my little speech. They look ready. I'm taking a risk today in keeping the attacking variant of Project: Meatloaf that saw us beat Granville so handily in place. It could backfire, but I'm willing to take the chance. If we can put down a marker today it'll put us in great stead for the second half of the season. The team today is the exact same one that beat our reserves 5-1 last week: Lenogue in net with my settled back 4 of Samba, Captiste, Doucouré and Hikem in front of him, Sissako and Raf in midfield, with Foden, Joël and Zoun behind Hicham Aidir. To be fair, Florian Ayé is unlucky to be pushed out after his brace in the cup, but there's no doubt in my mind that Hicham's still our number 1 striker.



It takes less than 2 minutes for the first Ligue 2 goal of 2022 to be scored. Phil Foden, fresh from pulling the strings in the French Cup 9th round, chests the ball down and turns inside from the right. He slides a pass into the path of Aidir, who turns and places the ball into the far bottom corner. 2 minutes in and we're top of the bloody league. I've turned up to the showdown and drawn my gun first. And my gun's called Hicham fucking Aidir.


10 minutes later the fans leap to their feet as Aidir drives forwards on the ball. He shrugs off Girod's challenge and leaps over Kabeya's slide tackle, dribbling onto the left wing before wrapping his foot around the ball and fizzing in a cross. Foden arrives in the box and shoots - Straight against the legs of centre back Bodin, but the ball takes a deflection and bounces perfectly into the bottom corner. Foden won't get to claim the goal but frankly I don't really care. 2-0 to l'AJA.


Miraculously our recklessly attacking mentality has caught Bourg-en-Bresse off guard and they're crumbling. We win the ball straight from kick off and give it to Zoun, who flies down the left, cuts inside and shoots from 20 yards, but Fabri manages to catch it and keep the scoreline from getting embarrassing... For 10 minutes at least, because when Samba's long ball forwards is nodded on by Joël, Hicham touches the ball past Bodin masterfully, leaving him free to poke it past Fabri and into the bottom corner for 3-0.


It's clear to everyone in the stadium that Hicham smells blood in the water. Just 25 minutes in he's on a hat trick and wants to complete it, but he mishits his next effort from 20 yards, skewing it well wide. After the half hour mark though he's still trying hard to bag his 3rd. He presses poor Bodin and wins the ball before dribbling onto the left wing once more. Aidir crosses from the byline and Bodin heads clear, but the centre back's first win of the day is stripped from him as Foden's shoved to the ground by Lamanje. We have a penalty and there's no prizes for guessing who'll take it. Aidir steps up and places the ball right into the bottom left corner, sending Fabri the wrong way, completing his hat trick and putting us 4-0 up against the former league leaders.
A lesser man would probably call it there, happy with his day's work, but not the big Moroccan. When Zoun cuts in and slips a pass through to him just inside the box, he shoots with venom but can only send the Ball crashing against the post.


My half time team talk is far less prepared than my pre-match one. I wasn't really prepared for the eventuality of a 4-0 lead at the break to be honest. Nevertheless I tell the lads they're performing fantastically and not to let their levels drop.


The hour mark brings about our first black mark of the day, when Raf, already on a booking, trips Tasic and receives his marching orders. Eager not to let the match fall apart, I bring off the attack minded Foden and Joël and replace them with Ba and Fomba, who will slot into a more reserved and standard 4-4-1. We'll retain possession with our 2 banks of 4 and try to kill the match off.


For the next 20 minutes the plan works perfectly. Neither team threatens to change the scoreline until the 80th minute, when Aidir dribbles into the box from the right wing but shoots tamely into the arms of Fabri. 2 minutes later Bourg very sportingly level the playing field and get themselves reduced to 10 men when Lamanje, already on a booking, trips Fomba needlessly. The last chance of the match is ours too. It's a long Samba ball over the top that Aidir latches onto before running through on goal. This time he hits it with his laces but Fabri does well to tip it around the post. The match finishes 4-0.



https://youtu.be/HEwUY1Shdzk



The Team of the Week fittingly contains 4 Auxerre players and 0 from Bourg-en-Bresse. Issa Samba, Captiste, Phil Foden and Hicham Aidir all make the cut for their contributions to an excellent football match.



I'm still in a fair amount of shock when Ruben Aguilar comes to me saying that he's no longer willing to wait for Issa's form to drop off before he gets his place in the starting lineup back. I don't really blame him as Issa's showing no signs of slowing down, but luckily Captiste is on hand to talk Ruben down. He's very much an unsung hero of our rise to the top this season, Captiste, but he's a fantastic captain.




With Auxerre and Bourg now level on points, we begin the battle to outdo each other in an attempt to get a bit of a cushion at the top. Our next match is away at Stade de Reims, who are not a side to be taken lightly, while Bourg take on ESTAC Troyes. Stade de Reims share a fantastic defensive record with us with both teams having only conceded 15 goals so far in Ligue 2. We're second only to Red Star, who've let in 13. We do have a better attacking record than our opponents and indeed the entire league though as we lead the scoring charts with 34 goals scored, but Stade de Reims are only 5 goals and 4 points behind us.



Raf won't make the team today as he's suspended for that red card. Sissako's out too after reaching 3 yellow cards in his last 10 games, so we're without our first choice midfield. That, combined with the fact that Reims have won every home match since August has me slightly concerned. We'll ditch the attacking Project: Meatloaf and opt instead for a counter attacking Project: Meatloaf Mk II, with the incoming holding man Loïc Goujon adding extra protection while we focus our play up the wings. Lamine Fomba comes in alongside Joël in the middle.



With both teams starting off with variations on 4-1-4-1, the match is predictably slow to get going. We do have a decent chance when Zoun runs the ball into the opposition half 4 minutes in and finds Aidir, but after running for the box and shooting with his weaker foot, our striker can only watch as the ball flies wide.


With half time just a couple of minutes away we give away a free kick 25 yards from goal. Gustavo Hebling steps up for the hosts and fires an absolute rocket towards the top corner. Luckily the ball smacks off the bar and Aidir manages to hoof it clear before Mafuala is able to take advantage of the now open goal.


Neither side changes at half time. The first half was very evenly balanced and I don't want to rock the boat. I can only imagine my opposite number is thinking the same. A couple of minutes after the restart we go agonisingly close when Zoun, who's looked impressive in his new role on the left so far, cuts inside and shoots from the edge of the box, but can only hit the post.


With 20 minutes to go a Lopez corner is cushioned down by Weber and headed at goal by Iloki on the penalty spot, but Lenogue saves well. We're down the other end 10 minutes later with Zoun again, but this time when he cuts in and shoots from 20 yards he sends the ball skimming just wide of the far post. I go the whole match without making a single tactical change and the boat stays un-rocked. 0-0 it ends.



Not that surprising when you think about it, is it? A 0-0 played out between the teams with the joint second best defences in the league. I'll certainly take it though. Stade de Reims, as I said before, are not to be taken lightly. They've been in Ligue 1 for the last 4 years and have some quality players. Going back to good defences actually, Xavier Lenogue, last season's back up goalie, is on 12 clean sheets for the season. That's just 1 behind Zacharie Boucher's record set in 2017/18. Good lad, Xavier. Although that defence does it's part too. My back 5 pretty much picks itself nowadays, they're all so solid.



Annoyingly though, our title rivals did win today and so they retake the top spot. This isn't over though. There's plenty of football yet to be played and if last week's any indicator, we'll be playing far better football than fucking Bourg-en-Bresse.



Godspeed, Godspower (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep135)

As deadline day approaches I'm not stressing or fretting about deals still to be finished like some of the other managers in the league. I've had a quiet window. Well a silent one really. I don't think we need bolstering at the minute though, if anything we're still a little bit flabby. We've got good cover in every single area of the pitch, except arguably at left back, but I'm not especially worries about that. More on that in a second though because I do allow some outgoings in the final days of January. Georges Bailly and Tristan Dubois both head out on loan to JA Drancy and Le Mont LS, while I turn down an approach from Southampton for young defender Nicholas Charlet. They initially come in with the insultingly low ball figure of £150k and after some really frustrating negotiations they still don't come close to his £500k asking price.


We're making the trip to USBCO in the league before the window slams shut though. They're having a tough old time of it so far this season and are currently propping up the league, while we're 2 points behind the league leaders Bourg-en-Bresse. You'd think because we've recently comfortably beaten the latter that a victory over the former should be a breeze, but doesn't it seem so entirely football that we should lose this one, lulled into a false sense of security after our recent form?



Hopefully not though. I mentioned before that we're light at left back and we're certainly going to see if I should have signed back up today because Faouzi Hikem's suspended after reaching 3 yellow cards in his last 10 matches. I've got faith in Ruben Aguilar though, our backup right back who's currently unhappy with his lack of playing time. He did a job at left wing back against Zlatan's Valenciennes, even scoring the winning goal, so I reckon he'll do a job today. Abdoulaye Sissako also comes back into midfield after his suspension at the expense of Lamine Fomba, who's still not showing me what he can really do. We're also going back to our attacking Project: Meatloaf system which may be tempting fate, but on the other hand... Come on, they're bottom of the bloody league. We're going to play wider than usual, we'll press them hard and get our attackers running at the defence. I want us to tear these apart, ideally.



It seems I needn't have worried too much. 11 minutes in a USBCO throw next to their own penalty area is fumbled by David Charles and Zoun heads it straight into the box for Aidir. Obviously he thumps it past Thuram-Ulien. It's 1-0 but we can't afford to relax. 2 minutes later we can though when Foden receives the ball 20 yards out, draws the centre backs out of position and slips the ball casually through for Aidir, who takes a touch and places it firmly past the keeper for 2-0.


By the 26th minute it's 3-0, this time from a Foden corner that's flicked on by Doucouré and volleyed by Captiste straight into the crowd of bodies in the box. A quick game of pinball ensues and ends when Sissako stabs the ball home from 6 yards out. A couple more minutes pass and we have the chance to extend our lead further, but when Aidir gets in behind the defence courtesy of a good long ball from Loïc Goujon, his shot is turned behind brilliantly by Thuram-Ulien.


It almost slips my mind, such is the action at the opposite end, that our young loanee Brahim Ferhat is on USBCO's left wing. He makes me sit up and pay attention with about 10 minutes to go before the break though when he bursts down the flank, leaving Issa Samba for dead. He approaches the byline and whips the ball back to the edge of our bo, where Loquet arrives to place it beautifully, first time into the bottom corner. I allow myself a wry smile. We're in such good form that it makes sense. The first goal we've conceded in 2022 is created by one of our own.
Half time passes and I bring off Joël at the hour mark. He's been OK today but he's struggled to make a real impact, finding himself isolated between USBCO's 2 holding men. Lamine Fomba comes on and I want him to throw his weight around a bit up there as more of a destroyer. Just seconds later we grab ourselves another goal. It's not Fomba, although I would have been extremely smug if it was. No, Ruben Aguilar, solid again at left back so far, whips a cross in towards the far post from deep on the left. It's a flat, angled cross and it's easy for Foden to anticipate. Phil arrives to tap the ball home from close range for 4-1. A few minutes later Fomba takes a potshot from 30 yards but it drifts harmlessly wide. I choose to ignore it.


Still not content for some reason, I bring Adama Ba on for Zoun on the left with 20 minutes to go. He does nearly make an immediate impact, receiving a brilliant chipped pass from Fomba and crossing from the byline, but Aidir's heavily outnumbered in the box and the ball's headed clear. Lamine cushions it down for Ba though who volleys it first time - Against the far post. Unlucky.


With the game dead we drift into injury time. I don't know if complacency drifts into our ranks but in the 91st minute the hosts' goalscorer Arnaud Loquet crosses from deep on the right and who else but Brahim Ferhat pops up to poke the ball in at the far post. I give Brahim a subtle thumbs up as he runs past and he grins back at me. He's not been prolific this season and that's only his 3rd goal in 25 games, but he's certainly impressed me today.



https://youtu.be/quSuj6-BYdA



We've not lost in 5 league matches now, including 3 wins and a goal difference of +7. It's extremely promising form but annoyingly it's not enough to take the top spot back from Bourg. I wish they'd just stop bloody winning.



Anyway, deadline day is here and we've already lost our first player of the day. Phil Foden... Has a cold and won't be fit for arguably the highest profile match of my career against Bordeaux tomorrow. Come on, Phil.



We have actually lost our first player of the day though. Nicholas Charlet is going to Southampton after all after they come back in with a £750k bid with future incentives for the 15 year old. He can't move until the Summer when he's 16 but it's all agreed. To be fair, it's a big move for the lad and I hope he makes the most of it.



Godspower Tower's leaving too, as much as it pains me to lose a player with such a fantastic name. He's joining Diósgyör in Turkey for £500k, where hopefully he'll get a bit more football. Godspeed, Godspower.



And finally Crouchie lets me know that young midfielder Paul Lefevre is off to Fethiyespor on loan, again with first team football in mind to aid his development. I'll keep a close eye on him. Well, Crouchie will, when he isn't watching Isaac Sohna.



And with that the deadline slams shut. I'm glad of it to be honest. The window's nothing but an annoyance if you're not planning on buying anyone and I've mainly been ignoring it over the last few days, because I've been focussing on this: Our French Cup 10th Round match away at Girondins de Bourdeaux.



Only a madman would attack such a big team away from home, so I'm reverting once again to our counter attacking Project:Meatloaf Mk II. Foden's out with his... Cold... And Samba's suspended for (All together now) picking up 3 yellow cards in his last 10 matches. I'm never going to play a full strength side again, am I? But luckily Hikem's back from his suspension so he comes in at left back, while Aguilar finally gets to play in his favoured position of right back. Adama Ba will cut in from the left after briefly impressing against USBCO, while Zoun moves over to the right wing. Let's see if we're ready to take on a Ligue 1 club.



We threaten early on when Zoun leads a counter attack, darting with the ball through the centre of the pitch. He shoots from the edge of the area and sends it over the bar, but he gets an ovation from the travelling support even so. Our fans fall silent a minute later though when Bordeaux do some breaking of their own. Andersen feeds the ball through for young striker Gnago, who slams his shot against the near post. It's a close call.


A few minutes later they're starting to pen us into our own box. This time the ball's on the right with Vida, who gets a cross in from the byline straight onto the head of Lo Faso at the far post. He powers a header - Against the angle from close range. Bloody hell. For a moment I get flashbacks to a certain bombardment in Stockholm, but our luck doesn't last like it did that day. In the 17th minute Coco slides the ball across the edge of our box and Gnago turns the ball in under Lenogue at his near post.


The next 8 minutes are a painful watch. We stay under the cosh and concede not once, but twice more before the 25 minute mark. First through Andersen, who dribbles forwards and powers it in from the edge of the box, and then through Gnago again, who receives the ball from Acosta and beats Lenogue at his near post. Again.


And that's how my first half of competitive football against a Ligue 1 club ends. 0-3 and utterly, thoroughly outclassed. Seeing as we're pretty much out of the cup at this point anyway though, I choose to see this as an opportunity. How does our attacking Project: Meatloaf hold up against a much better side? I bring off Ba and replace him with a sniffling Phil Foden, who swaps with Zoun and moves onto the right. If we're going to lose I'd like us to at least play some decent football and in the last few games we've played some brilliant stuff.


It bloody works within 2 minutes. First Zoun cuts in from the left and shoots, forcing a good save from Dimitrievski, and from the resulting corner Foden swings the ball right onto the penalty spot, where Sissako's waiting to lash it home on the volley. Unfortunately though, Bordeaux take control back after that, perhaps realising that they let their guard down after the break. With half an hour to go we go 4-2-4, with Florian Ayé replacing Joël and joining Hicham up front and the 2 wide men swapping wings so that they can stay wide and float some crosses in on their favoured feet. A few minutes later we get at them again. This time a long ball from Hikem is brought down by Ayé and slipped through the defence for the onrushing Foden. He pokes the ball at goal but Dimitrievski saves well.


With 20 minutes to go we're back against the wall though. Gnago goes close to completing his hat trick but is denied by a parried save by Lenogue, and then a close range free kick is bent just over the bar by Lo Faso. 10 minutes later that nuisance Gnago goes close again, receiving another great Acosta through ball and shooting just wide of the near post, but a few minutes later it's Acosta himself that bags the final goal, firing past Lenogue from 20 yards after a good Bordeaux break. We go close with a couple of minutes to play when Foden's corner is cushioned down by Hikem and volleyed goalwards by Captiste. The ball crashes against the underside of the bar but stays out. In all fairness, the better side has won.



https://youtu.be/YI9p1Dx-elI


It's quite troubling, really. I'm aiming for promotion here and although Bordeaux are admittedly a good Ligue 1 team and not one of the strugglers, we were so thoroughly outplayed today that it really makes me wonder whether this team would cut it in the top flight. Or maybe it's my system? Either way, if we hit our target this year I'm going to have to give this a lot of thought.




Phil-led With Pride (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep136)

Do you know what I'm most proud of about this season? Because it's not our undeniable overachievement in the League and it's not our almost unparalleled defensive and offensive goal records either. It's Phil bloody Foden. It genuinely could've gone either way when I brought him in and I'd never spent as much as £500k on a player before, which would've made signing him a big mistake on my part if things hadn't gone to plan. Before this season he'd barely played competitive football in his career, instead being a stalwart for Man City's youth teams as a sort of luxury number 10. He's really started to shine in Ligue 2 though and that's why I'm so proud. In fact he's already on 9 assists for the season and will almost certainly break Jérôme Mombris' club record of 12 from the 2018/19 season before the final game. His impact has been especially noticeable in our few games since the winter break, not because of his goal and 3 assists in those 4 matches, but because of his obvious growing intelligence as a right sided inside forward. As I heard one pundit* astutely observe recently, "How satisfying is it seeing him utterly nailing the inside forward role to perfection, especially after his early struggles? On the ball, he's cutting inside and dragging defenders with him before slipping clever reverses through to Aidir. Off the ball, he's making darting far-post runs and getting tap-ins. Lovely stuff." Good lad, Phil.



Today we host ESTAC Troyes, which I've really been looking forward to. After our recent humbling defeat in Bordeaux this really is the ideal match in which to bounce back. We've got a fantastic record against ESTAC Troyes in our previous 3 encounters under my stewardship, winning on all 3 occasions. Let's hope we can make it 4 out of 4.



Today though I've got a bit of a headache because I'm not quite sure how to line up against them. I attribute a lot of our success this season to the fact that in pretty much every match I've set up primarily to nullify the opposition, whether that means playing 3 at the back and man marking their front 2, playing a narrow formation to strangle the opposition's central players, etc. But I'm not sure how Troyes will line up. They've been a bit all over the place recently, having used a 4-2-3-1, a different 4-2-3-1 with deeper central midfielders, a 4-1-2-3 and a flat 4-3-3. In the end though I remember the words that dear old Ms Alexandersson bestowed upon me: "Don't overthink it." Why should I try to nullify Troyes? We're going with our new and improved attacking variant of Project: Meatloaf and they can have a good hard think about how they're going to deal with us. I'm making a couple of changes from the team that lost in the cup: Aguilar and Goujon are both suspended but conveniently Samba and Raf are back from their suspensions, so they come back in at right back and centre midfield respectively. Phil Foden's shaken off the sniffles so he comes back in for Adama Ba on the right, with Zoun swapping back to the left where he's recently impressed.



The first half is a quite horrible experience. Troyes do set up in a 4-2-3-1 with deep midfielders which I don't mind, but what really ruins my plan is the weather. It's a bitterly cold day with sleet pelting the pitch. The surface is slippery and not ideal for dribbling or playing the ball on the deck, which is what we're trying to do. We do get a chance with about 5 minutes to go before the break when Sissako passes to Foden on the edge of the box though. Phil turns onto his left foot and rifles a low shot towards the far corner, but the ball cannons back off the post, rolls across the line and is cleared before Aidir can knock in the rebound.


At half time I decide that we need to go more direct because of the conditions. Aidir will play as more of a target man and we'll knock the ball up to him quicker. With half an hour to go though the scores are still level. Joël makes way as we're bypassing him anyway and Florian Ayé comes on as a second target man in a 4-2-4 formation. Foden and Zoun swap flanks and will try to get more crosses in to the big lads as out and out wingers.


Not even 2 minutes after Ayé's introduction, Foden stands over a free kick 25 yards out on the right. He chips a cross in towards the penalty spot towards Ayé, but Samuel Grandsir leaps in and clears the ball. All of a sudden the referee blows his whistle and points to the spot. Penalty! The ref judges Grandsir to have raised his foot too high, but I have to say I'm really surprised he's given us that. The winger's boot was nowhere near high enough to be a danger to Ayé. He's 5'6" for fucks sake, he's surely physically incapable of kicking anyone in the face. I won't look a gift horse in the mouth though and with Troyes' manager Oscar Ewolo still fuming nearby, Ayé steps up himself and buries the ball into the bottom corner from 12 yards.


10 minutes later I bring on Adama Ba for Zoun on the right wing and within minutes he nearly makes just as much of an impact. Another Foden free kick, this time out on the right wing, is flicked on by Sissako and headed by Ba at the far post, but he hits the post. With 5 minutes to go we look to control the game and hopefully kill it off. There are a couple of late chances though, firstly in the 91st minute when Hubert tests Lenogue from 20 yards and forces a decent save, then a minute later MBuemo fizzes a shot across the face of goal. Lenogue doesn't even move and looks even more relieved than I feel when the ball goes just wide of the far post. I'll take the 1-0 win, even if it doesn't feel all that deserved.



https://youtu.be/XFT1ARvbXSo



With that result in the bag though we're unbeaten in 6 league games, which is a great feeling. Xavier Lenogue will be feeling the best of us all as that result takes him to 14 clean sheets; A new club record. 13 of those have been in the league too and he's closing in on the Ligue 2 record of 15 in a season, which was set by Darko Dejanovic of FC Metz last season.





The week that follows is full of club news: Firstly Jérôme Mombris is hanging up his boots in the summer. It's a wise decision in my opinion. He was obviously a very good full back in his pomp but his 30's have taken away any pace that he might have once had. In my opinion though he's still got a bright future, possibly as a coach, assistant or even a Manager. I may even see if he wants to stay on at the club in some capacity in the Summer.




A few days later I find out that a takeover may be on the cards too, which is always exciting, if a bit disruptive. The club's Chinese owner Zhou James is looking to step down and there's rumblings of some local investment. Watch this space, I suppose.



Our next match, which marks Abdoulaye Sissako's 100th for the club, takes us to Nîmes Olympique for another reunion with Isaac Sohna and his temporary teammates. Nîmes are sitting comfortably in mid table but after our 3-0 win in the reverse fixture I'll be looking for another comfortable victory today.



We're almost unchanged today, with the exception of Captiste, who's suspended and replaced by Mike Kakuba. Mike's been very patient this season, watching on from the sidelines as I build a solid defence without him. It hasn't really helped him that although our full backs and central midfielders need shuffling literally every match because of these silly suspensions, our centre back pairing has kept their powder pretty much dry until this point. Captiste's absence doesn't just have big consequences for Mike though, because as our captain sits in the stands we need somebody else to turn to for leadership. Hicham Aidir, Auxerre vice captain, takes the armband for the first time.



The first real chance of the match falls nearly 20 minutes in after our corner's cleared by the Nîmes defence. Samba plays the ball to Raf, who passes short to Zoun, cutting in from the left as usual. As the hosts hesitate to close him down, the Burkinabe winger has time to take aim and fire - into the far corner of the net. It's a great start and an even better finish.


The home side might peg us back 10 minutes later, but when Buzaglo sends a 35 yard free kick soaring into the box, Doucouré clears it firmly. Raf receives the ball and looks up to see Phil Foden tearing into space on the left wing and picks him out with a superb long ball. Foden pulls it back to Zoun, who tees up Sissako, and the 100 match graduate drills the ball home to put us 2-0 up.


That'd be enough for me in an extremely dominant first half, but we don't relent. 5 minutes later Foden floats a free kick into the Nîmes 6 yard box and the keeper comes out and misses the ball. His defender bails him out by heading it clear, but only as far as Joël, who nods it down so that Zoun can smash the ball into the empty net. We head in for the break with a deserved 3 goal lead.


As we approach the hour mark the cherry is well and truly placed on top when a quick passing move culminates with Joël teeing up Sissako on the edge of the box before the man of the day fires in our 4th and becomes the 2nd player to bag a brace. Satisfied with a job well done, I replace our booked pair Hikem and Raf with Goujon and Fomba and we see out the game without a problem.



https://youtu.be/xQjcqqXy-cU


I obviously single out Sissako, Joël and Zoun for praise after the final whistle, but this has been an excellent team performance. I suppose the downside of our aggregate 7-0 win over Nîmes this season is that Isaac Sohna has really failed to impress me, which is worrying. He is definitely improving but if all goes well we'll be in Ligue 1 next season and if he can't cut it at this level... We'll deal with that in the Summer. All that matters today is the 3 points, which combined with Bourg-en-Bresse 's 1-1 draw against Ajaccio leaves us sitting atop the league. We just need to try and stay here this time. Come at me, Bourg.



*Top analysis @Sammuthegreat on fm-base. Cheers mate!


Going Swimmingly (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep137)

At the risk of tempting fate, everything's going ****ing swimmingly for AJ Auxerre at the moment. We're top of the league, unbeaten in 7, starting to sweep lesser teams aside, Xavier Lenogue's a single clean sheet away from equalling a league record and now we're apparently the subject of a takeover, courtesy of a mysterious "Former footballer".

The owner Mr James and Chairman Mr Chabod are very much keeping me in the dark with regards to the identity of the potential buyers, so I've been spending my downtime speculating about this mysterious consortium. My leading theory so far is that Auxerre favourite Eric Cantona, together with his contacts at Stella Artois, the second ******** lager on the market, is coming back to his old club to lead us into a glorious new era.

We've got several players in the Domino's Ligue 2 Team of the Week again, including 3 of our starting defenders Issa Samba, Mamadou Doucouré and Mike Kakuba, along with Abdoulaye Sissako, Joël Soumahoro and Zoun. The 4-0 win over Nîmes really was a walk-over and it's great to see so many of the lads get recognition for their performances.

Corentin Tirard's ruled himself out for a couple of weeks with a groin strain, but I think at this point I've made my indifference towards him perfectly clear, so I'm not counting his being crocked as a grey cloud in Auxerre's perfect blue February sky.

We're taking on 18th placed US Créteil-Lusitanos today at the Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps. It's a match that the visitors won't have been looking forward to at all but it's one that I'm eagerly anticipating. To be fair I'm excited for every match at the minute because I get to watch this Auxerre side's scintillating football.

Créteil shouldn't pose a major problem today so I'm sticking with our all out attacking Project: Meatloaf. Mike Kakuba's giving me a bit of a headache at the minute as he barely put a foot wrong in the absence of Captiste last week and I'm struggling to think of a reason to recall my captain to the side. It's a great headache to have though. I am making one change for today's match however and that's Hicham Aidir, who I'm resting in favour of Florian Ayé. Hicham was quiet in the Nîmes game but I'm not dropping him for that. I just want to give Florian a run out and I reckon we can take care of Créteil without our talismanic Moroccan. The absences of Captiste and Hicham mean that Issa Samba gets the armband. The full back's stood in before and I trust him to do a job as our skipper.

The first half an hour is slow on the pitch but is by no means quiet in the stadium. The home fans are in fine voice, buoyed by the team's recent form. Belief and expectations are high and rightly so. After 20 minutes I tell the team to try to exploit the flanks as we're finding it tricky to break down the Créteil defence. They've started with 2 holding men in front of the back 4 and a midfielder in front of them, so the centre of the pitch is very congested. The change pays dividends quickly when in the 32nd minute Joël passes the ball short to Zoun 20 yards out, who turns and blasts it over the keeper, against the underside of the crossbar and in. Take a bloody bow mate.

I want to press our advantage. The goal means that the visitors need to come out of their half and actually try to score so we'll play with more width, we'll roam from our positions and we'll play some expressive football like the Project: Meatloaf of old. If they try to get at us I want us popping up in the gaps and pulling their defence apart. We don't manage another first half goal but on the hour we double our advantage. After setting up the opener Joël tries to bag himself a goal and shoots from 20 yards, but his shot's immediately blocked. The ball only rolls away a few yards as far as Raf though and he puts his laces through it, nearly bursting the net with a fantastic effort. We'll need to make a DVD of this game or something because these goals have been excellent.

In an effort to give us even more width, Foden and Zoun swap flanks and will play as out and out wingers, staying wide to stretch the defence even more than our overlapping full backs have been doing so far. With 20 minutes to play though Créteil win a corner. Berthier whips it into the box and although he rises well, Kakuba can only flick the ball on towards the far post with his head. Niakaté gets there quickest and heads towards goal, bringing a good save from Lenogue, but he can't keep hold of the ball and drops it at the feet of Jimenez. The Créteil man shoots desperately from a narrow angle but captain Issa Samba dives in to knock it behind for another corner.

About 10 minutes later I make a rare triple substitution, giving Aidir, Ba and Fomba chances to impress me. Ayé, Foden and Raf make way. With 5 minutes to go Hikem brings the ball forwards and gets a cross in from the left wing. Leca clears the ball but not far enough and it falls for Abdoulaye Sissako, who thumps a Di-Canio-esque volley towards goal from the edge of the area but can only watch it crash against the far post. Zoun's beaten to the rebound and the ball's cleared. I feel somewhat for Abdoulaye, who very nearly took his recent tally to 5 goals in 5 games, which would've been pretty astonishing for a midfielder whose skillset is primarily based around defence.

We do manage to put the cherry on top though. Just a couple of minutes after Sissako hits the post, Aidir holds the ball up and tries to slip Ba in behind the defence on the left. He's thwarted by an absolutely superb slide tackle by Bangoura, but the ball only rolls back to Aidir, whose shot deflects in off Boyer. They all count, Hicham. Another extremely pleasing 90 minutes ends 3-0.

https://youtu.be/9xbJiiJEqlQ

Oh for ****s sake, can somebody ask Ruben Aguilar to stop ruining my excellent mood? As Captiste and I have explained to him many times, there's no way I'm dropping Issa Samba or Faouzi Hikem unless their form drops. Or they get suspended. Which they almost certainly will do sooner or later actually, so I don't know what he keeps whinging about. Luckily, we all know how this goes: Aguilar kicks off, Captiste steps in, puts an arm round the full back and makes him see sense. God, I love Captiste.

Just the 3 players in the Team of the Week this time, too. If I didn't have such a naturally sunny disposition I'd be starting to feel a bit crestfallen. Mike Kakuba, Raf and Joël are our trio, although I reckon Zoun's unlucky to be left out. I'd stick him in there for that goal alone.

Now don't get me wrong, as Matthew Wilder once said: "Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride", but do you remember Alessandro Bassani, the promising young winger that I was planning on blooding into the squad this season but who broke his ankle early on? Well he's back! And he's picked up a bloody sports hernia, ruling him out for another 4-5 weeks. It really is lucky that I'm so ****ing chipper, isn't it?

Now here's some good news: Xavier Lenogue has levelled the Ligue 2 clean sheet record of 15, meaning another in our next match will set a new league record. Good lad.

Speaking of our next game, we'll be playing AC Ajaccio away from home today and they're another club that are struggling to beat the drop at the minute. I'll not show any mercy though. Bourg-en-Bresse have latched right onto us at the top of Ligue 2 and just won't **** off, staying level with us on 55 points but behind because of their inferior goal difference, and I want us to keep winning until we shake them off. Incidentally though, a 7 point gap's opened up between the two of us and Stade de Reims in 3rd, which is extremely promising in terms of our promotion bid.

The only change I'll make today is bringing Hicham Aidir back in. I was hoping that Ayé would put in a performance to give me something to think about against Créteils-Lusitanos, but he went missing an awful lot and will have to wait for another chance. Benjamin Valette, the youngster who was sold to Marseille in the Summer and loaned out to Ajaccio, starts against us for the second time.

This is all becoming too easy. It only takes 20 minutes for Joël, who's now officially in superb form, to pass short to Aidir on the edge of the box and for our captain to stroke the ball firmly past the lesser Mandanda to give us the lead. It's another dominant half of football and we nearly go 2-0 up in first half injury time when Sissako picks out Samba charging up the wing on the overlap. Samba chests it down and lays it off for Foden, who plays it on to Aidir and he shoots on the turn, but can only scuff the ball wide of the near post.

I keep it simple at half time and send the lads back out with smiles on their faces. Smiles that are wiped away only 5 minutes after the restart, when Vincent scoops a beautiful pass over the top of our defence for Vasseur, who cuts in from the left, controls the ball with his first touch and half volleys it into the far corner of our net with his second. Huh. Still confident in our ability to retake the lead though I sacrifice the more defensive Raf and Zoun, who's had a quiet game, for Fomba and Ba 5 minutes later. Less than a minute after the duo come on, a Vincent cross is floated towards our far post from the right byline and Mike Kakuba brings down the goalscorer Vasseur in the box. Huh. The referee points to the spot and awards a penalty to AC Ajaccio, which Legchilin converts, sending Lenogue the wrong way... Huh.

We're behind. We're losing. To a bunch of bloody relegation strugglers. I honestly don't know if I'm shocked or furious. Maybe I'm both. But it's lucky I'm still in such a good mo... 10 minutes after Ajaccio's 2nd goal, Phil Foden takes an elbow to the chest jumping for a header and has to go off. Huh. Yeah I'm ****ing furious. Everything that could have gone wrong in this second half has so far gone wrong. I throw Florian Ayé onto the right as a makeshift wide target man but I'm beginning to lose hope.

It's not until injury time at the end of the game that we start to show signs of fighting back. In the 91st minute Adama Ba tries his luck from 25 yards but Mandanda catches the shot easily. 2 minutes later we're really pushing though and Aidir's holding the ball up 25 yards out. After that it all happens in slow motion: A centre back is drawn out of position... There's a gaping hole in the Ajaccio back line... Lamine Fomba charges into the space and receives the ball from Hicham... He's got all the space in the World... And he spoons it wide from 6 yards out with his weaker foot. I think we're done for today.

https://youtu.be/LGmN1R6PV7M

Now let's be rational about this because I want to know if I'm going over the top here. Am I annoyed that we've lost against a side that we were heavy favourites to beat? Sure. Am I frustrated that we allowed both of their 2 second half shots to find the back of the net? Yes. Am I vexed that we were unable to add to our only goal or record more shots on target ourselves? Definitely. Am I angry that Bourg-en-Bresse also lost today and a win would've lifted us 3 points clear at the top for the first time this season? Take a ****ing guess.

In fact, no. Do you know what? Yes I'm angry with how this game's unfolded. **** Ajaccio, **** their 2 shots, **** Bourg-en-Brease, **** Mike Kakuba and **** the brute that jabbed poor Phil Foden in the chest.

Tribune Leclerc - Part 3 (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Mini-sode 137.5)


I'm sitting in the Tribune Leclerc stand in Stade Abbé-Deschamps. Right at the back of the balcony against the back wall. I’ve spent the past 2 months coming here every night while I sleep and do you know what the worst part of this place is? The silence. When I first came up here in a dream the silence was calm and peaceful. Now it’s a lonely, claustrophobic silence that makes me very aware of the lack of any noise around me. I'm also well aware at the minute that I may have overreacted in the wake of our defeat to AC Ajaccio earlier today. I don't know what it was, just a bit of red mist I suppose. I'm still reeling a bit from the events of the last couple of months off the field. I miss Meatloaf and I miss Burnie. I miss the shit out of them.


They were the yin and yang, the polar opposites that inspired me when I needed inspiration the most. Burnie, who inspired a good few counter attacking strategies thanks to his ability to absorb all the shit his brother gave him, waiting for his moment before striking back. And Meatloaf, who despite his arseholeishness against his brother inspired me to be the aggressor. To dominate. They both inspired me to scrap and to fight back in different ways and they were my muses.


A footstep cuts through the silence. Comparatively the noise is as intrusive as the ringing of a bell tower just a few feet to my left. The silence is broken just for a moment but then absorbs the noise back into itself. I look down the aisle for the source of the noise and what I see makes my jaw drop. Standing beside me in a homemade black and red knitted jumper is a sweet looking old lady with long grey/blonde hair, smiling kindly and watching me through the thickest pair of glasses I’ve ever seen. Standing beside me is Ms Alexandersson.


“Hello dear”, she says quietly, taking the adjacent seat where Meatloaf used to sit. As she does, she produces a pair of knitting needles and a couple of balls of different coloured wool and begins to knit. The click-clack of the needles breaks the silence once more.


“Hello...” I try to keep talking but I can’t think of a single thing to say. She nods slowly as if she understands.


“You shouldn’t come here any more, dear. You know that.”


“I...” ...Still can’t think of anything to say. After another pause I manage: “Meatloaf... Burnie...”


“Are both gone.” She cuts me off, abruptly but with no sense of malice in her voice. “You know that too.” We sit through another long pause, punctuated only by the click-clack of her knitting needles before she continues. “Look where we are. Look at this stadium.”


I look around feeling quite foolish, scanning the ground for anything that she might be referring to. “I... I don’t...”


“Stade Abbé-Deschamps”, she recites in a grand voice, as if she was introducing a world class boxer. “When I met you I wouldn’t have trusted you to manage a direct debit, never mind a team that plays in a place like this.” I chuckle and Ms Alexandersson continues to smile sweetly back at me. It’s a fair point. “It was never going to be plain sailing all the way to the top though, you’ve always known that.” She continues, “Whether it’s relegation from the Swedish First Division South, Losing 0-4 in the South African Knockout Cup Final, that horrible winless streak in the Lotto Ekstraklasa that went on and on...”


“Did you have a point?” I laugh weerily. She smiles again.


“Or losing Meatloaf and Burnie.” She concludes softly. “It’s just another obstacle on a long, long journey.” She pauses again. Click-clack, click-clack. “Somehow you’ve fumbled your way up to Ligue 2, but there’s still a long way to go.”


I chuckle again. “There is.” I agree.


“So don’t come back here again dear. Please.” She says. I look up at her to see that her smile has faded for the first time. Instead she looks genuinely concerned. The click-clack of her needles has stopped. I allow my smile to fade too.


“I won’t.”


“Good.” She smiles once again. “Onwards and upwards.” She takes my hand and pushes something into it. Something woollen. And the next thing I know, she’s gone. The seat that she had occupied slams shut due to her sudden absence. I open my hand up to reveal what Ms Alexandersson’s given me: A yellow dog, flecked with brown with large dark eyes and a pink tongue sticking out of his mouth. It’s clearly meant to be a big dog, like a labrador or a golden retriever.


I place the knitted dog in my left trouser pocket and stand, surveying the darkened stadium. This isn’t supposed to be a dark, lonely place. This is the home of Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise. This is supposed to be the stage for my greatest success to date. It’s time to wake up and make it happen.


A New Hope (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep138)


So yes, fine. I threw a bit of a wobbler last week against Ajaccio, I'll admit that. I lost my head. We weren't good enough on the day, we didn't come close to the high standards that I've come to expect from AJ Auxerre and I was fuming. But that's football isn't it? The sport where Portugal and Greece can win the Euros, Chelsea can lose to Bradford and Ian Holloway can take Blackpool FC into the Premier League without a bloody washing machine at the club for the players' kits, all the while making comparisons to pulling at the end of a night out. The mad bastard. Football can be unpredictable and emotions often run high. So fuck it, live and learn. I'm also being advised to "congratulate" Ajaccio on their victory, so... Yeah, well fucking done.


Seriously though, sincere congratulations to Ajaccio for crocking my revelation of an inside forward. Phil Foden took a whack during the match and came away with broken ribs, so he'll miss about a month of football. That to me is the equivalent of a jealous older sibling seeing that their younger sibling has a better set of toys than they do and lashing out by... Oh I don't know... Elbowing them right in the abdomen like some kind of shit eating, brain dead troglodyte.



Anyway with my sincere and heartfelt apologies out of the way, let's move onto some better news, shall we? Hicham Aidir always lifts spirits so let's start with the fact that he's only gone and set his 2nd club goals record in as many seasons at as many clubs. Bloody hell, he never ceases to amaze me. He's on 19 for the season so far with 14 matches still to play, which already eclipses our own Florian Ayé's tally of 18 set in the 2017/18 season. You'd better up your game, Florian.


For a change though it's not Hicham that's catching the eye the most, it's our in-form pair Zoun and Abdoulaye Sissako, who are voted 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Ligue 2 Player of the Month competition. They've been excellent since the break. Zoun in particular has really impressed me, taking to his new role on the left like a duck to water.
In more brilliant news it's time for our annual intake of academy graduates. I always like to pay close attention to the new generation and being at a club with such a great reputation for bringing players through, this year will be no different.



In no particular order let's introduce some of the most promising of the bunch. First up and hailing from The Woodlands in Texas, USA, is right winger Patrick Granger, brought through our ranks thanks to our ongoing affiliation with Texas Rush. He's one that I'm going to keep an eye on despite his lack of ambition because he's a quick, aggressive team player who knows how to score from range and with a better attitude and improvements in certain areas, he could be decent.



Then there's 14 year old Sylvain Laurent from Belfort, a couple of cities East of us. He's a definite prospect and puts me in mind of Juno from Santos; A brave, hard working and tough-tackling defensive midfielder who's also full of tricks on the ball and has a free kick up his sleeve to boot. He's got an interesting combination of skills that could well prove be useful.



Mathis Roux is another 14 year old home grown talent, hailing from Orléans. He's definitely in my preferred mould; high level of fitness, very determined, good decision maker and team player and able technically too. He likes to play in central midfield but could become a good number 10 too. He thinks he can also play as a striker but I respectfully disagree as he's even worse at shooting than I was in my day.



And finally, Brazilian-born/French-raised Celsiney Andre, or "Celsiney" as he's already dubbed himself. The thought crosses my mind that if 15 year olds are already working on 'Branding' then humanity has officially failed, but hey ho. Celsiney Andre is an extremely determined right full back, which puts him back on my radar. He's also terrifically brave and pretty quick too, so I look forward to seeing to what extent he can improve his god awful technical skills.



I've (finally) learned my lesson from previous seasons and refrained from offering pre-contracts to those lads until after they've played for the grads against our U19's, as in previous years they've gone straight into the latter team and haven't played in this showcase match.



Interestingly though, not all of the 4 standout kids start the match. With the grads opting for Project: Burnie Mk III, there's no wingers and so Granger has to settle for a spot on the bench. Laurent, Celsiney and Roux however all start against the U19's Project: Meatloaf, which is quickly scrapped in favour of their own Project: Burnie Mk III. A wise choice.


It's a quiet match to be honest and the grads really fight for a result, but are undone when the Under 19's sub right back Brice Traoré whips in a corner that's headed home by centre back Rui Correia. They're made to work hard for the narrow victory though and I am impressed by the noobies' performance.



https://youtu.be/TfzAClVztPc


When the match is over the youth contracts are handed out and pre-contracts are given to the 4 who've caught my eye. They eagerly sign.



It's time to shift focus back to the first team though because the race to break Jérôme Mombris' assist record of 12 in a season is heating up. Foden looked certain to break it first, but now that he's sitting out for the foreseeable future the door's opened up for Joël Soumahoro, who's on 10 assists. The joke's on me again as just like when I brought him to Santos, I had doubts in the summer over Joël's ability to stake a claim for a regular first team place in a Ligue 2 side. I'll gladly eat my words... Well, my thoughts, for the second season in a row though. He may not be the biggest, toughest, fastest or most skilful, but my God the young Ivorian gets results.



US Orléans are the side making the trip to Auxerre today and after the Ajaccio match I'm looking for us to bounce straight back. It's fitting that I should have just watched our young talents battle it out with Project: Meatloaf Mk III, because Orléans play with a 4-4-2 so I'm bringing it back.



We'll feel the game out with a standard mentality. I don't want us charging out too recklessly against a team with a strong attack and I don't want us to sit back too much either. In terms of personnel, Faouzi Hikem and Raf are of course suspended, so Aguilar and Goujon are in. Or they would've been but Goujon twists his knee just before the match and misses out on a rare start. Fomba starts instead, while Ayé and Captiste also make the lineup at the expense of the injured Foden and the unfortunate Zoun, who doesn't fit into this shape. Orléans play with that delightfully nostalgic big man/little man duo up front with 6'5" target man Toutain and non-6'5" all rounder Wissa. Mike Kakuba, still one of the most aerially dominant defenders I've worked with, will mark the former, while Doucouré marks the latter, both with instructions to stay tight as they should have their men for pace too. Captiste makes his reintroduction between them and will push into the hole to start moves and break up attacks. Oh, and I do apologise to Mike for what I said after the last match. And not nearly as sarcastically as I apologised to Ajaccio.



We get off to a good start, with Orléans being pretty well nullified making a good base for us to build upon. In the 17th minute we open the scoring with an absolute beauty. An Aguilar throw in on the left wing starts a rapid 6 pass move that ends with Aidir taking a touch and clipping the ball past Despirez and into the bottom corner. An excellent start marked by an excellent striker's 20th goal of the season.


We nearly double our money 15 minutes later when Joël, on corner duty after Phil was brutally savaged last match, crosses from the set piece and finds Captiste at the far post. The skipper heads the ball back across goal and Fomba gets his head to it, but can only direct it into the grateful arms of the Orléans keeper. But then just as I start to feel like we're on course for another bright, bright, sunshiney day, Sissako has to hobble off with the assistance of one of the physios. We suspect a sprained ankle. This is troubling with Raf suspended and Goujon out as I don't have any senior backup for him, but it's even more troubling because I've grown to bloody love Abdoulaye Sissako and his ridiculous levels of energy. He limps down the tunnel with a grimace and I turn to young Gaizka Basauri for his first appearance in quite a while. Even though he's quite creative I just want him picking up where Sissako left off for now as a ball winner.


Gaizka looks solid after his introduction and we continue to dominate without adding to our lead. At half time I'm careful not to seem overly happy as this is the exact situation we had at half time against Ajaccio. I don't have to worry for too long though. Just before the hour mark and after another lovely flowing move, Fomba slips Samba in behind the defence on the right, our right back squares the ball for Florian Ayé and he drills it home for 2-0.


5 minutes later the visitors react, hauling off their mountainous striker Toutain and replacing him with Morel, who is about as far in the opposite direction as you can get. He's small, low centre of gravity and fucking rapid. We ditch the tight marking and I have Basauri and Joël drop back to form a 3-3-2-2 formation with a deeper defensive line, which should hopefully clog up the channels and prevent their 2 nippy strikers from getting in behind us.


And to be fair, it works. We're unlucky not to add a 3rd 10 minutes later when Basauri's corner is headed against the post by Lamine Fomba and I even give a cameo to young Amine Chassaing, who is another youngster I'd planned on using this season. I do still think this squad's a bit flabby because I'm not giving these kids nearly as much time as I'd like to. I'll stick a pin in that thought for the summer though. We shut up shop and take our 3 points. It's a professional performance and I'm more than happy.



https://youtu.be/W6lnltfnWGU


Ah, what a difference a week makes. Records are crumbling, another 3 points are up on the board, some of the kids are getting to play and more tiny reinforcements are scurrying up through the system. A new hope has been breathed into Auxerre and I feel like a completely new man.


But I do wish Bourg-en-Bresse would PISS. RIGHT. OFF.



Ultimatums (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep139)

Well, it’s official: Xavier Lenogue’s 16 clean sheets is a new Domino’s Ligue 2 record. FC Metz’ (Who just happen to be our next opponents) keeper Darko Dejanovic held the record for 2 years but has been surpassed by Lenogue and his band of ridiculous defenders. Joël’s nearing his record too and after setting up Aidir against Orléans he’s now just 1 behind our retiring left back Mombris’ 12 assists in a season.




So let’s talk FC Metz. They're a decent mid-table side and we thrashed them 3-0 in the reverse fixture, so today represents a chance to build up a bit of momentum. We’ll be without Abdoulaye Sissako in midfield as his injury picked up against Orléans has been confirmed as a sprained ankle and will keep him out for 4-5 weeks, which is certainly a blow, but Hikem and Raf are back in contention after completing their suspensions. Loïc Chicken Goujon’s back in full training but this match comes a little bit too soon for him, so he won’t be risked from the start.




With Metz unlikely to field a striking partnership and warrant 3 centre backs we’re reverting to our attacking Project: Meatloaf for this one. This means that one of our centre backs needs to drop to the bench and as much as it pains me, Mike Kakuba’s the one. I can’t drop Doucouré as he never seems to do anything wrong whatsoever and even though I’ve forgiven him, Kakuba did give away that penalty against Ajaccio, so Captiste is ousting him. Faouzi Hikem, Raf, Zoun and (Brace yourselves) Corentin Tirard return to the first team on place of Ruben Aguilar, Abdoulaye Sissako and Florian Ayé. This is Corentin’s very last chance to impress and he gets the nod today purely because I’d like a left footer to replace Foden on the right, but if he’s as lacklustre as he has been in previous games he’s played for me, he's done at Auxerre. It’s also worth mentioning that even though Lamine Fomba keeps his place today I’m really starting to run out of patience with him too. He’s done some good here and there this season but given that he’s arguably one of the most talented players in the squad, he should be doing a lot better. He’s actually my 5th choice central midfielder now after dropping below Sissako, Raf, Joël and Goujon in the pecking order. We’ve got plenty of talented kids waiting patiently in the reserves and unless Lamine starts showing me more I’ll be giving them a try.



In under 18 minutes we're a goal down. We push too far forward and allow the hosts to break. Larrodo's diagonal ball onto the left is latched onto by Bazile, he whips a great cross in from the byline and Thill pops up to head home from close range. You'd think that because I recognised that we pushed too far forward, I'd do something about it tactically. I don't though and less than 10 minutes later we're 0-2 down. Taking advantage of our defence's high line, Soudani chips a ball straight over the top and Thill controls it well and calmly finds the bottom corner. Bollocks.


And so about 10 minutes after the nick of time, I spring into action. We go on the counter. Tirard and Zoun swap wings and play as out and out wingers while Aidir will hold the ball up as a lone target man. I'm not sure if our chance of a result has already slipped away though.


It certainly seems like it. Our only semi-meaningful contribution of the half is when Hicham Aidir dribbles forward and tries his luck from 35 yards, but Darko Dejanovic catches it comfortably. At half time I'm honestly sympathetic towards the players. This deficit is my doing, going all gung-ho away from home against a decent team.


In the 53rd minute the hosts are toying with us. Kums plays a pinpoint pass through the left channel for Bazile, who smashes the ball at goal and is denied by a good parry from Lenogue. We'll try to exploit the flanks to bypass their defensive midfield pairing but we're still really struggling to find a foothold.


With half an hour to play we do go close. Joël chips a nice ball into the box for Aidir to run onto and the Moroccan drills it towards the bottom corner, but Dejanovic saves well. From the resulting corner Tirard swings a decent cross in for our striker but Hicham's header flashes wide of the far post.


In desperation we go 4-4-2, sacrificing Raf for Florian Ayé. We go back on the attack and play more direct to the big men up top. Apart from a Thill potshot 10 minutes later though, the match is dead. A deserved 0-2 loss.



https://youtu.be/nw3a9V2g3DE


So what have we learned? Well for one thing, don't start gloating about how much better your keeper is at keeping clean sheets than a rival keeper right before you play the rival keeper's fucking team. That's a good rule of thumb. And definitely don't go out to attack a good team on their turf. That was a rookie error. Lastly, don't give your players "One last chance" to impress you and then fuck the match up yourself. There's a lot to be learned here actually.



Fortunately we have a chance to bounce back before the international break starts and I want 2 wins from the 2 matches we have before the players jet off. The squads have been named and in terms of Auxerre players, Zoun, Raf, Ba and Doucouré are all off to join up with their national sides, while interestingly our loaned out full back Billy gets his first Morocco call up for his good form in Belgium. There's no such call up for Hicham Aidir though.



And we will bounce back. We'd better anyway. Chamois Niortais are not a good side. They're languishing just above the relegation zone and I want to make up for that loss with a thumping win to deepen their relegation fears. Phil Foden's thankfully back in full training but he won't be fit enough to play today.



So as we’ve established, I made a right dick of myself in the Metz game. After giving ultimatums to 2 of my players, the blame for the loss ended up falling well and truly on my shoulders, so here’s what I’ll do: I am making no changes whatsoever. I won’t hold that result against any of the players and they’ll get another chance to impress me today. A home match against Chamois Niortais is a much more appropriate time to go out on the front foot and it’s a great opportunity for Lamine and Corentin to win me over.



Fomba shows a great glimpse of quality for our first chance on goal: He dinks the ball beautifully onto Aidir's left foot and the big striker shapes his body well to volley it goalwards, but it just misses the bottom left corner. 10 minutes before the break though a couple of our in form players get us off the mark. Joël squares the ball for Zoun 20 yards out and our nippy winger finds the top right corner. Postage stamp.


In first half injury time El Hajhouj turns Captiste inside out with some fancy footwork to make some space on the edge of our box, but he spoons his shot over the bar. He's ruing his missed opportunity as we enter the 2nd minute of injury time when Joël harries an opposition midfielder to win the ball high up, plays a one-two with Aidir, lofts a great through ball into the path of Zoun on the left, who buries it to double his tally. We go in for the break on the right side of a 2-0 lead this time.


10 minutes after the game gets back underway, Raf plays a long ball onto the left for the electric Zoun to chase. The keeper Racciopi runs out onto the wing to clear his lines but Raf has the sheer audacity to volley the ball straight back towards goal from the half way line. My heart stops. The keeper's beaten... But it's heading wide. Out of nowhere, Hicham Aidir latches onto the ball and tries a shot from a tight angle... And hits the post. That could've been the moment of the season. Raf, you rascal.


Aidir's not had a great couple of matches to be honest. I bring him off with 25 minutes to play to see if Ayé can do any better. That's pretty much that though. Rocheteau tests Lenogue with a decent effort late on and Goujon and Aguilar make late appearances, but we come away with a thoroughly acceptable 2-0 victory. Joël and Zoun have, as usual, been far more than acceptable. They both put in exemplary performances today.



https://youtu.be/QjCAFD0_ox4


And now we wait with bated breath to see whether we'll keep our 3 point lead at the top of Ligue 2. Bourg are currently 3 points behind but they do have a hugely important game in hand. Fingers crossed they fuck it up.



Ultimatums (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep139)

Well, it’s official: Xavier Lenogue’s 16 clean sheets is a new Domino’s Ligue 2 record. FC Metz’ (Who just happen to be our next opponents) keeper Darko Dejanovic held the record for 2 years but has been surpassed by Lenogue and his band of ridiculous defenders. Joël’s nearing his record too and after setting up Aidir against Orléans he’s now just 1 behind our retiring left back Mombris’ 12 assists in a season.




So let’s talk FC Metz. They're a decent mid-table side and we thrashed them 3-0 in the reverse fixture, so today represents a chance to build up a bit of momentum. We’ll be without Abdoulaye Sissako in midfield as his injury picked up against Orléans has been confirmed as a sprained ankle and will keep him out for 4-5 weeks, which is certainly a blow, but Hikem and Raf are back in contention after completing their suspensions. Loïc Chicken Goujon’s back in full training but this match comes a little bit too soon for him, so he won’t be risked from the start.




With Metz unlikely to field a striking partnership and warrant 3 centre backs we’re reverting to our attacking Project: Meatloaf for this one. This means that one of our centre backs needs to drop to the bench and as much as it pains me, Mike Kakuba’s the one. I can’t drop Doucouré as he never seems to do anything wrong whatsoever and even though I’ve forgiven him, Kakuba did give away that penalty against Ajaccio, so Captiste is ousting him. Faouzi Hikem, Raf, Zoun and (Brace yourselves) Corentin Tirard return to the first team on place of Ruben Aguilar, Abdoulaye Sissako and Florian Ayé. This is Corentin’s very last chance to impress and he gets the nod today purely because I’d like a left footer to replace Foden on the right, but if he’s as lacklustre as he has been in previous games he’s played for me, he's done at Auxerre. It’s also worth mentioning that even though Lamine Fomba keeps his place today I’m really starting to run out of patience with him too. He’s done some good here and there this season but given that he’s arguably one of the most talented players in the squad, he should be doing a lot better. He’s actually my 5th choice central midfielder now after dropping below Sissako, Raf, Joël and Goujon in the pecking order. We’ve got plenty of talented kids waiting patiently in the reserves and unless Lamine starts showing me more I’ll be giving them a try.



In under 18 minutes we're a goal down. We push too far forward and allow the hosts to break. Larrodo's diagonal ball onto the left is latched onto by Bazile, he whips a great cross in from the byline and Thill pops up to head home from close range. You'd think that because I recognised that we pushed too far forward, I'd do something about it tactically. I don't though and less than 10 minutes later we're 0-2 down. Taking advantage of our defence's high line, Soudani chips a ball straight over the top and Thill controls it well and calmly finds the bottom corner. Bollocks.


And so about 10 minutes after the nick of time, I spring into action. We go on the counter. Tirard and Zoun swap wings and play as out and out wingers while Aidir will hold the ball up as a lone target man. I'm not sure if our chance of a result has already slipped away though.


It certainly seems like it. Our only semi-meaningful contribution of the half is when Hicham Aidir dribbles forward and tries his luck from 35 yards, but Darko Dejanovic catches it comfortably. At half time I'm honestly sympathetic towards the players. This deficit is my doing, going all gung-ho away from home against a decent team.


In the 53rd minute the hosts are toying with us. Kums plays a pinpoint pass through the left channel for Bazile, who smashes the ball at goal and is denied by a good parry from Lenogue. We'll try to exploit the flanks to bypass their defensive midfield pairing but we're still really struggling to find a foothold.


With half an hour to play we do go close. Joël chips a nice ball into the box for Aidir to run onto and the Moroccan drills it towards the bottom corner, but Dejanovic saves well. From the resulting corner Tirard swings a decent cross in for our striker but Hicham's header flashes wide of the far post.


In desperation we go 4-4-2, sacrificing Raf for Florian Ayé. We go back on the attack and play more direct to the big men up top. Apart from a Thill potshot 10 minutes later though, the match is dead. A deserved 0-2 loss.



https://youtu.be/nw3a9V2g3DE


So what have we learned? Well for one thing, don't start gloating about how much better your keeper is at keeping clean sheets than a rival keeper right before you play the rival keeper's fucking team. That's a good rule of thumb. And definitely don't go out to attack a good team on their turf. That was a rookie error. Lastly, don't give your players "One last chance" to impress you and then fuck the match up yourself. There's a lot to be learned here actually.



Fortunately we have a chance to bounce back before the international break starts and I want 2 wins from the 2 matches we have before the players jet off. The squads have been named and in terms of Auxerre players, Zoun, Raf, Ba and Doucouré are all off to join up with their national sides, while interestingly our loaned out full back Billy gets his first Morocco call up for his good form in Belgium. There's no such call up for Hicham Aidir though.



And we will bounce back. We'd better anyway. Chamois Niortais are not a good side. They're languishing just above the relegation zone and I want to make up for that loss with a thumping win to deepen their relegation fears. Phil Foden's thankfully back in full training but he won't be fit enough to play today.



So as we’ve established, I made a right dick of myself in the Metz game. After giving ultimatums to 2 of my players, the blame for the loss ended up falling well and truly on my shoulders, so here’s what I’ll do: I am making no changes whatsoever. I won’t hold that result against any of the players and they’ll get another chance to impress me today. A home match against Chamois Niortais is a much more appropriate time to go out on the front foot and it’s a great opportunity for Lamine and Corentin to win me over.



Fomba shows a great glimpse of quality for our first chance on goal: He dinks the ball beautifully onto Aidir's left foot and the big striker shapes his body well to volley it goalwards, but it just misses the bottom left corner. 10 minutes before the break though a couple of our in form players get us off the mark. Joël squares the ball for Zoun 20 yards out and our nippy winger finds the top right corner. Postage stamp.


In first half injury time El Hajhouj turns Captiste inside out with some fancy footwork to make some space on the edge of our box, but he spoons his shot over the bar. He's ruing his missed opportunity as we enter the 2nd minute of injury time when Joël harries an opposition midfielder to win the ball high up, plays a one-two with Aidir, lofts a great through ball into the path of Zoun on the left, who buries it to double his tally. We go in for the break on the right side of a 2-0 lead this time.


10 minutes after the game gets back underway, Raf plays a long ball onto the left for the electric Zoun to chase. The keeper Racciopi runs out onto the wing to clear his lines but Raf has the sheer audacity to volley the ball straight back towards goal from the half way line. My heart stops. The keeper's beaten... But it's heading wide. Out of nowhere, Hicham Aidir latches onto the ball and tries a shot from a tight angle... And hits the post. That could've been the moment of the season. Raf, you rascal.


Aidir's not had a great couple of matches to be honest. I bring him off with 25 minutes to play to see if Ayé can do any better. That's pretty much that though. Rocheteau tests Lenogue with a decent effort late on and Goujon and Aguilar make late appearances, but we come away with a thoroughly acceptable 2-0 victory. Joël and Zoun have, as usual, been far more than acceptable. They both put in exemplary performances today.



https://youtu.be/QjCAFD0_ox4


And now we wait with bated breath to see whether we'll keep our 3 point lead at the top of Ligue 2. Bourg are currently 3 points behind but they do have a hugely important game in hand. Fingers crossed they fuck it up.



Fomba Leads The Way (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep140)

Joël Soumahoro is a bloody record breaker. Let that sink in. 13 assists in a season is a new AJ Auxerre best, eclipsing Jérôme Mombris’ 12. I feel like a proud parent. Little Joël, the lad who was playing in the Côte d'Ivoire Premier Division with Academie de Foot Amadou Diallo just 2 years ago, is all grown up and breaking records in the French 2nd tier. With promotion still looking likely I genuinely wonder whether he can make another step up to the Elite world of Ligue 1. It could happen. He’s also selected in the Team of the Week along with Zoun, after the pair of them linked up twice brilliantly to defeat Chamois Niortais.




But it’s not just Joël that I’m proud of today. Chancel Kasongo is a name that all but the most switched on Auxerre fans have probably forgotten at this point, but when I came in last season to fight the fire that was relegation from Ligue 2, I gave young Chancel his professional debut in the hope that a fresh and creative mind could pull us out of the mire. He certainly did his part and did it well, but ironically had no place in the squad when Joël’s transfer was finalised. He was loaned out for the season to AFC Tubize in the Belgian Pro League B, but they won’t be a Belgian Pro League B team for much longer. Thanks in no small part to their standout French midfielder Kasongo, Tubize are going up to the top tier of Belgian football and I’m fucking delighted for them. Chancel's only scored a single goal, but he's assisted 9 more and won 4 Player of the Match awards. I'm going to have some serious assessing to do when he returns in the Summer.




And that’s not all that’s happened in a news-heavy week: A consortium has stepped into the light, led by Lapland-based Dennis Sundberg, with the intention of taking over AJ Auxerre. The rumours about local investment and former footballers have died away in the midst of this news and it seems like the story has momentum, but I’m not sure I’m too pleased. You see, according to the stories I’ve read, Sundberg and Co are looking to invest under £1 Million in our club. I don’t think I’ve moaned about this yet but despite our positive bank balance last Summer and the profits we made in the subsequent transfer windows, the club is now over £3 Million in the red. Even the most optimistic of mathematicians will tell you that all of these numbers don’t add up to a happy ending. I hope that Mr Sundberg, if he does take over our club, has his cheque book ready or we’re in trouble. On the other hand though, the only other Lapland-based business I’ve ever heard of involved a bearded gentleman that shook his belly like a bowlful of jelly and had a taste for cookies and milk, so maybe a Christmas miracle will ease our financial crisis.



And as if there wasn't enough going on, apparently we're closing in on an Auxerre wins record and are currently 3 away from levelling our personal best of 22.



We're travelling to Red Star in search of win number 20 today and I really hope we can find it because we're in danger of being left behind Bourg-en-Bresse. They won their game in hand and climbed 3 points clear at the top of the season thanks to our loss at Metz. I'll be so annoyed if that result costs us the title.



I've kept an eye on Red Star as I do with all upcoming opponents and they play with a narrow 4-4-2 diamond, which is a formation I've not often come up against in my career. It's a tricky one to counter as usually I'd bring out Project: Burnie Mk III, which allows us to man mark a 4-4-2 strike pair with a spare man, but with the narrow diamond funnelling nearly all the opposition players down the middle I think we'd get overpowered pretty easily. So today calls for a different approach. We'll go with Project: Meatloaf Mk II, we'll play on the counter, we'll be narrow to suffocate their midfield and we'll exploit the flanks where they're weak, doubling up with inside forwards and über attacking wingbacks bombing beyond them. I'm making a few changes from the Chamois game but probably not the ones you're expecting. Tirard and Fomba keep their places after putting in decent shifts while Hikem, Raf and Aidir are dropped after their poor performances to be replaced by Aguilar, Goujon and Ayé, who makes his 150th club appearance. Phil Foden's on the bench.



We start quickly. We're happy to play patient passes around the edge of the box until Lamine Fomba spots Issa Samba pelting down the flank. Fomba sprays the ball out wide to him in acres of space and Samba gets a good cross in, but Zoun can only direct his header over the bar from close range.


It takes another 20 minutes before we find the breakthrough and it's a well practised free kick routine that does it. Tirard passes short to Joël, who plays the ball out wide for Samba. The wing back gets another cross in from the byline and Ayé emerges unmarked at the near post to head the ball home.
7 minutes later it's becoming painfully clear who's running the show so far. Issa Samba charges once again down the right wing, loving the freedom of his new attacking wing back role. He skips past the challenge of Al-Abdulrahman and floats a great cross over to the far post. Florian Ayé's on hand to cushion the ball down and Zoun volleys it, but Tchagouni makes a superb reflex save to keep his side from falling further behind.


A few minutes later Samba has the ball again in an advanced position but this time switches it beautifully to Ruben Aguilar on the left. Aguilar gets the ball out of his feet with his first touch and drills it low with his second, but the shot deflects off a defender and bobbles through to Ayé. He hits it towards the bottom corner but is denied by another terrific save from Tchagouni. We actually do get a chance from the resulting corner when Tirard's cross is cleared as far as Joël, but the playmaker puts his 20 yard shot over the bar.


We look certain to go in for the break with a narrow lead but in the 45th minute, Corentin Tirard whips a cross in from a free kick on the right wing, Loïc Goujon flicks the ball on and Lamine Fomba places it under the keeper from close range. My fists shoot straight into the air. You've no idea how happy it makes me to see those 3 names linking up to score a goal. We take a 2-0 lead into the changing room at half time.


We start the second half just as quickly as we start the first, killing off any plans of an early fight back from Red Star as they struggle to keep us out. The first 5 minutes is one-way traffic and when Tirard's corner's cleared to the edge of the box on 50 minutes, Joël brings the ball down and moves it straight on to Zoun on the 6 yard box. He shoots from a narrow angle but only rattles the post. He's been unlucky so far today but he's getting in the right positions and that's pretty reassuring.


Barely a minute later the hosts go close when Pierre-Gabriel finds space on the right and crosses into the box. Bailly nods the ball on and Timite heads at goal, bit Lenogue catches it comfortably.
With 25 minutes to go before the International break I welcome Phil Foden back into the fold. He comes on replacing Corentin Tirard, who in all fairness hasn't been bad for the last few games, he's just been quite average. A few minutes later Joël curls the ball onto the right wing into the path of Samba. He crosses once again into the box for Ayé and the striker cushions the ball down for Foden a few yards out - But Foden's hacked down by a 2 footed challenge. "Come on!" I shout in protest, but I'm immediately drowned out by the sound of the travelling fans' celebrations as Florian Ayé tucks the ball in himself.


Red Star aren't going down without a fight though. 90 seconds after our 3rd goal Pierre-Gabriel finds space again and cuts the ball back for Laurent Bailly, who forces a good low save from Xavier Lenogue. They get their reward for persistence a few minutes later. A lovely little move sees Bamba chip the ball to Al-Abdulrahman on the left, who volleys it into the box, where Bailly smashes his volley over Lenogue without the ball touching the floor.


I decide that now's a good time to bring out a variation of Project: Burnie Mk III and haul off Joël and Zoun to be replaced by Raf and Kakuba. We go to a 3-3-2-1-1 formation with Captiste, Kakuba and Doucouré across the back, Samba, Goujon and Aguilar in front of them, and then Raf and Fomba supporting Foden in the number 10 role and Ayé up top. I am still a little bit gutted for Phil that he was savaged once again and denied a place on the scoresheet because of it, but with 4 minutes to play he puts that right with a 20 yard free kick that he curls beautifully over the wall and into the top corner. Welcome back, you brilliant bastard.


Straight from kick off we see yet more signs of life from Red Star, but when Muyumba chips the ball into the path of the goalscorer Bailly, he skies it over the bar on the volley. We could just wait for the whistle at this point but our inspiration to keep plugging away comes from an unlikely source: Lamine Fomba collects the ball from Raf on the edge of the box and drills in his 2nd goal of the match. 5-1.



https://youtu.be/pKeVSRLv7LY


The French Football Daily runs with the headline "Fomba Leads The Way For AJ Auxerre" the following morning and my chest swells with pride. I know it's only one match, but maybe, just maybe Lamine Fomba's decided to finally turn it on. He was monstrous in midfield today and I hope so much that he keeps going from here.



With the International break upon us I plan on watching some of my players with their national teams, but before I can do that Adama Ba comes knock-knock-knocking on Franjo's door. Before he even finishes his request for more first team football I send him Captiste's way. He's much better at this shit than I am and true to form, he turns Ba's frown upside down.


Captiste also grabs himself a place in Ligue 2's Team of the Week, along with fellow defenders Doucouré and Aguilar, midfielders Goujon and Fomba and good old Florian Ayé. Frankly, quite how Issa Samba doesn't get a spot in that team is beyond me though. Lamine Fomba also wins 3rd place in March's Player of the Month, beaten only by former Arsenal forward Giles Sunu and Vincent Thill, the man that embarrassed me in front of all my friends during our match against FC Metz.



I'm delighted on several levels to watch Morocco's home friendly against Burkina Faso, firstly because Zoun puts in a decent showing despite being horribly misused as a "Right sided midfielder" for the visitors, but also because he ends up playing directly against Morocco's substitute debutant left back Billy. They have a decent duel down the wing for 35 minutes in the second half before Zoun's subbed off, with Billy more than holding his own and helping Morocco to snatch a late draw.




With the players back from their respective matches, we get our game faces on. We're still 3 points behind the insufferable Bourg-en-Bresse but we've now got 64 points and 20 wins, so if we can build up some momentum for the run in we can catch them up and go for a couple of club records in one fell swoop. 72 points and 22 wins are the records to aim for.




We host Clermont Foot today and they're by no means a bad team but their recent form has been patchy to say the least. With Abdoulaye Sissako finally back from injury during the break we're back to having a full squad to choose from, so I don't think we've got any excuses not to win this.



Project: Meatloaf is on the menu. Clermont play very defensive football in a compact 4-1-4-1 so we'll need to be at our best to break them down. Our only personnel change from before the break is Phil Foden, who is back to full fitness and takes the place of Corentin Tirard. I've not been impressed to be honest.



13 minutes in we win a corner on the right and Phil Foden hits an in-swinger towards the 6 yard box. Clermont's centre midfielder Richard tries to clear but can only flick the ball on towards Zoun, who heads the ball into Jeannin's arms. Zoun looks like he's got something to prove after a frustratingly quiet couple of weeks and receives the ball from Joël on the left wing after about 25 minutes. The Burkinabe winger swips across the defensive line towards the centre and sends a shot careening towards the far top corner, but Jeannin pulls out a top class save to deny him again and tip the ball behind.


Otherwise the first half's pretty quiet and so is most of the second. On the hour mark and with Ba's unhappiness and the fact that Hicham Aidir's been out of my side for what must be a record amount of time both at the forefront of my mind, I bring the pair on in place of Zoun and Ayé and it does seem to spark us into life. With 20 minutes to play Adama Ba slides the ball in front of Lamine Fomba and the midfielder thumps it against the bar from 25 yards. It's a close one but we've been taking too many long shots out of frustration today, unable to break through the visitors' defensive lines. We switch up to play a higher tempo, pass shorter, roam from our positions, play a more expressive style and work the ball into the box. As the defence begins to tire these changes should pull them around to breaking point.


Sure enough, we have the breakthrough within 5 minutes. It's a familiar sight from the last couple of matches seeing Fomba play Issa Samba in behind the defence on the right and the full back squares the ball from the byline. Hicham Aidir arrives to poke it into the open net from close range and I've already forgotten why I dropped him in the first place.


We revert to our normal style after the goal but Clermont forced to try and push out, we're 2-0 up within 3 minutes. This time Joël plays a one-two with Fomba and then passes it to Foden with his back to goal on the edge of the box. He turns and rifles the ball towards the far bottom corner and although Jeannin gets a glove to the ball, he can't stop it from rolling over his hand and in.


And that's that. With the game wrapped up in a bow I introduce Raf and bring Joël off for a deserved rest. It doesn't stop the 2 goal scorers from linking up one more time in the 92nd minute though, when Foden lays the ball off for Aidir and the resurgent Moroccan smashes it low towards goal. Again, Jeannin gets a hand to it but again the ball's only got time for a quick 'hello' with the keeper's fingertips before it has to go and be in the back of the net for me. 3-0 and we're back at the top of the league. True, Bourg have a game in hand again, but I don't care about that at the minute. Phil's back, Hicham's back and I think I can safely say that AJ Auxerre are back in form.



https://youtu.be/2gwRe0e9KvM



Auxerre’s To Lose (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep141)

Lads, break out the wine and let the streets of Auxerre run burgundy with the stuff! Bourg-en-Bresse have finally lost and the Domino’s Ligue 2 title is Auxerre’s to lose once more. With 6 games to go both we and our title rivals are on 67 points, but with our 25 goal superior goal difference we’re essentially a point ahead. I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Stade Malherbe Caen for their contribution to our season, because Bourg were on a terrific run and they took some stopping.



I’ve given Bourg a lot of stick but both sides at the top are having fantastic seasons. Even though we finished 16th last season we were predicted for a 7th place finish, which makes our rise to the top impressive but nothing on Bourg. They finished a single place above us last season and were predicted to stay exactly where they were, so for them to be in this title race we’re really bordering on Leicester City in the Premier League territory. It’s a fantastic achievement. Meanwhile, we're now just 5 points away from our record points tally of 72.



The Coupe de la Ligue is over and it's the scrappy underdogs at Paris Saint-Germain that've snatched the cup, beating Toulouse in the final. I'm happy for them that they can finally get some use out of that trophy cabinet. What a breath of fresh air.



Phil Foden’s back and is straight into the Team of the Week after his great performance against Clermont, while his equally impressive team mate Joël is gunning for the Ligue 2 record of 14 assists in a single season and is currently 2 away from levelling it.




There may have been a potential hiccup with Dennis Sundberg's proposed takeover of our club though, which has dampened spirits somewhat. Apparently the Lapland-based consortium might not have enough money to complete the transaction and you can see why that might be a problem.



There's nothing we can do about off-field problems though so we turn our attention back to the pitch. Groupe Sportif Consolat's pitch specifically where we'll look to finally open some distance between us and Bourg. We could also equal the club record 22 wins in a season with 3 points today.




GSC usually line up with a narrow diamond and I lick my lips at the prospect of coming up against another one of those, having seen off Red Star 5-1 not long ago who used the same shape. We'll use the same narrow, counter attacking Project: Meatloaf Mk II system with attacking wing backs that we used that day and we'll look for a similar result. Hicham Aidir is back in the starting XI as a reward for his impressive display from the bench last week, while Zoun comes out for a rest, with his form having dropped a bit. Adama Ba comes in on the left, while Sissako makes the bench after his recent injury woes.



GSC are the first to fire a warning shot just 2 minutes after we get underway. Bourniet sends a good corner flying awkwardly across our goal and Lenogue's beaten in the air by Satli, but the centre back glances his header just wide of the far post. Only a few minutes later they're pushing again, this time with a good cross from Mazikou, deep on the left wing. Leclere runs towards the far post to try to latch onto the ball but he's shoved clumsily to the floor by Ruben Aguilar. The full back knows that his place in the starting 11 is far from secure at the best of times and his head goes straight into his hands as the referee points to the spot. Faucher steps up and slides the ball confidently into the bottom left corner to put the hosts ahead.


10 minutes later the game's devolved into a hoofball match with the ball being pinged from end to end without any sense of control. Finally though it's Auxerre that get it on the floor and start playing a bit more through Aguilar on the left. Eager to make up for his mistake in our area he cuts in and plays an excellent through ball into Aidir's path and the striker hits it past Bozic's outstretched glove first time to equalise. If I had a list of all the players' names, I'd be scribbling over the frowny face next to Ruben's and replacing it with a smiley one. I don't though, so I just give him a thumbs up and a wink.


The most pleasantly surprising part is what happens straight from kick off. We win the ball back and Adama Ba chips it up the left wing for Aidir, who nods it on and chases the ball down to the byline. He whips a cross into the box and up pops 5'6" Phil Foden to power a header past the keeper, completing our turnaround in a bizarre but pleasing display of role reversal.


The rest of the first half is a tight affair and there's not much quality on display from either side. We do go close early in the second half though when Foden plays a nice one-two with Joël from a free kick and then loops a cross in from the right wing. Whether it's accidental or not only Phil knows, but the ball drops over the furiously back-pedalling goalkeeper, hits the bar and goes behind, leaving Bozic to breathe a huge sigh of relief. A minute later Ba picks up a knock, which is a shame as he's not had much of a chance to feature since Christmas. Zoun comes on to replace him but the rest of the match is quiet. On reflection though it's a deserved 3 points and another impressive performance by Hicham, Phil and the gang.



https://youtu.be/47RK_dlFoCc



It's bad news on the Ba front as he's picked up a groin strain and will miss about 2 weeks, but it's good news for Zoun because I'll sort of be forced to put him straight back into the team.



2 of our number do make it into the Team of the Week, which isn't surprising in itself, but the fact that both Aidir and Foden are left out is. It's actually Issa Samba and Mamadou Doucouré that are picked after their solid displays against GSC.



I've been focussing on the records that we are and soon might be breaking for so long that they've sort of lost all meaning, but for those keeping score: We're now on 70 points, which is 2 behind our record, and 22 wins, which is level with our record. Hicham's on 22 league goals, 4 behind Djibril Cissé's Ligue 2 record of 26 and 9 Player of the Match awards, which is also equal with Auxerre's record.


Phew. Also, Dennis Sundberg must have flashed the cash to Mr Zhou because the takeover talks are back on after that set back last week. Honestly I don't know if this is good or bad news at this point, but hey ho.



Our next match at the Stade Abbé-Deschamps is against Stade Malherbe Caen, the side that so helpfully beat Bourg-en-Bresse to put us top of the league. They're doing pretty well in the league and sit in 8th place, but I'm hoping for a professional job today to break our personal best points tally.



They line up with a 4-2-3-1 and so shall we. Bourg also matched their shape and came off worse, but they didn't have our system. They didn't have Project: Meatloaf. Issa Samba's suspended for this one and with Adama Ba ruled out with that groin strain, Faouzi Hikem and Zoun are back in, with Aguilar starting in his favoured right back spot.



We get off to a fantastic start in under 7 minutes when Phil Foden chips a free kick in from the right wing. Lamine Fomba rises to nod the ball on and Aidir lets it drop over his shoulder before lashing it in on the volley at the far post. We're not allowed to celebrate our lead for very long though as within 4 minutes a slick Caen move from a throw in results in an equaliser. Diego throws it to Kalmár, who nods it on for Suljic, who plays it inside for Wesley Saïd, who finishes it off with aplomb.


15 minutes later it's us who are pushing for the lead, but Foden's caught in possession and robbed by N'Simba, who launches the ball upfield to start a counter attack. Saïd chases it into our box and shoots low, but Lenogue does well to tip it behind for a corner. I'm a little bit worried at how we were done by the striker's pace there, so we revert to Project: Meatloaf Mk II, with a deeper defensive line and Goujon dropping back as a holding man so that we don't leave too much of a gap between defence and midfield.


The change does the job to some extent as the game quietens right down. After the hour mark though it's becoming clear that we need another change of tact to get the winning goal. Zoun's getting no joy cutting in from the left but the right wing back Diego is pushing up and leaving lots of space, so Tirard comes on as a winger to try and make the most of the gap on the left side. With 10 minutes to go though Caen are in the ascendency and a patient move ends with Diego playing a ball through our defence and into the box for Saïd. Captiste gets across to make a good tackle and sends the ball rolling, but only as far as Suljic, who hits it goalwards. Lenogue can only bat the ball into his own net. Shit.


We're now in serious danger of losing Bourg once again in the title race. I throw Sissako on for Goujon as a ball winner with the license to get forward and do some damage and we'll go attacking and just take the risk that they won't take advantage with Saïd's pace. We'll try to play the offside trap just to be safe but to be honest losing 1-2 or 1-3 makes no difference at this point. I also want the wingbacks getting forward as much as possible. It's all hands on deck time.


With 6 minutes to play the ball comes to Joël in the middle and he volleys it onto the left wing for Tirard. The often underwhelming winger takes a fantastic touch, allowing him to speed away from Fortes and into the box. He shoots - And balloons his shot way over the bar.



https://youtu.be/cOx-s9g9wlc


I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly curse and condemn Stade Malherbe Caen for royally fucking our season. Bourg-en-Bresse, having won their match, have climbed to 73 points and cut us adrift once again. They've now guaranteed at least a play-off spot and even though we're only 4 points away from mathematically securing promotion ourselves, I've got that sinking feeling of failure again.



Stars (Franjo: A Journeyman Story - Ep142)

I close my eyes and press my fingers to my temples. I wish this fucking takeover would just happen or just not. For the last 2 weeks all I've heard is "Takeover off"...

 "Takeover on"...

 Over and over and over again. Either cough up the funds, Sundberg, or don't, because you're making a really fucking bad first impression. I'm already sick of you and you've not even started setting me unreasonable expectations or selling my best players yet.


In better news though, both Joël Soumahoro and Hicham Aidir are thought to be in contention for the Ligue 2 Star of the Season award. In my eyes it'd be richly deserved if either of them were to win it.





And there's also high praise for our unflappable skipper Captiste from Laurent Blanc, who's been praising him on 90min.com. For an Auxerre centre back, it doesn't get much better than that.



But there's an elephant in the room. Several actually. It's a big room. We face RC Strasbourg Alsace today at their place and for so many reasons it's a huge, huge match. Firstly, a win here in Strasbourg would set a new Auxerre points record.

 Secondly, a win would also set a new Auxerre win record. 

Thirdly, anything but a win could effectively end our title push, allowing Bourg-en-Bresse to open the gap between 1st and 2nd to 6 points. Fourthly, Strasbourg are bottom of Ligue 2, so we'd deserve to lose all hope of winning the title by losing against them. Lastly, and by far the most importantly when all's said and done, a win here today would seal our Promotion to Ligue 1. When you take out all of the other shit, this is what really matters. Promotion to Ligue 1. Home of PSG, Monaco, Marseille, Lille and Lyon. Home of Auxerre. Home of Franjo. Now wouldn't that be something.



"Listen", I begin. I've scheduled an emergency team meeting to say a few words ahead of the big match. "We aren't meant to be here." I grin and a few of the Auxerre lads chuckle. "We're the team that survived relegation last season. We're the team that was meant to be safe and steady this year." I'm talking as calmly and as kindly as I can. As I do, I wonder to myself whether I actually mean the words I'm about to say. "If we don't get this promotion, it's no big deal. OK?" I see a few players relax. "We aren't meant to be here." I say again. "But because of your hard work we are." I smile again, looking around at the players. "Give it your best. Don't overthink it." I wink and head for the door as the players cheer, shout and clap their approval.


We will of course be serving Meatloaf today with a side of victory. Adama Ba's back in full training but isn't fit enough to start, so we go mainly unchanged, with the exception of Aguilar, who drops out and is replaced by Issa Samba, who's back from suspension. I was hoping to see Fabien Fonrose in action today, the young centre back that Strasbourg have taken on loan from us, but he's ruled out with a groin strain and won't feature.



I'll be honest, Strasbourg's decision to line up with a 4-4-2 takes me by surprise. The last time we met they opted for one of the oddest looking 3-2-3-2 formations I've ever seen, but I suppose they have sacked Manager Frédéric Varela and replaced him with Sébastien Roi since then, so I shouldn't have expected a repeat performance. I do consider scrapping Project: Meatloaf and going for Project: Burnie Mk III, which is more suited to playing against such a shape. I'll leave that idea in the back pocket for now though, because against the worst club in the league Meatloaf should be fine.


22 minutes in, Kljun's corner is headed clear by Goujon and picked up on the edge of the box by Rúben Vinagre. The left winger takes the ball down and fires it along the floor, beating Lenogue and finding the far bottom corner. Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks. Lenogue should do better, but take nothing away from that finish. It's a good goal and we might actually be in trouble.


5 minutes later though we respond with some of the most excellent 2-touch football I've seen from this side. We're zipping passes around for fun, bamboozling the opposition midfielders as we touch and pass, touch and pass, touch and pass some more. About 10 passes into the move, Foden plays the ball inside for Joël, who slips it behind the full back for Zoun. He squares it for Hicham Aidir and we all know what happens next. 1-1. Absolutely beautiful stuff.


A couple of minutes after the equaliser RCSA want their lead back. They come forward but lose possession and we counter quickly. Aidir sprays the ball out onto the left for Zoun to chase. He takes control, gets to the byline and crosses to the far post, where Phil Foden lets the ball fall right onto his boot and volleys it into the back of the net. My fists pummel the air. This is more like it. This is the Auxerre that put us in the title race in the first place. That's Phil's 10th goal of the season too. Good lad.


A couple of minutes before the break we should go 3-1 up after some more sublimely slick passing. This time Fomba plays the final ball, slipping Phil Foden in behind the defence. Foden aims for the far corner but is denied by a tremendous fingertip save by Oukidja. We settle for the 1 goal lead at the break but I am making changes. Zoun's had a terrific half but I'm going to do what I should've done from the start and bring out Project: Burnie Mk III. Ayé comes on replacing the winger and we'll play on the counter, with Loïc Goujon dropping into central defence, Joël stepping back into a deeper playmaking role and Phil Foden playing behind the 2 strikers.


I should see the warning signs. Pretty much straight from kick off Kljun plays a long ball over the top of our defence for Robin to run after. He leaves Captiste for dead but our skipper manages to force him out to a narrow angle with a good recovery. He gets a shot away but Lenogue catches it easily at his near post. A minute later though, the hosts win a corner. Vinagre takes this one and chips it to the near post. As he does, Robin spins away from his marker, Captiste, controls the ball unmarked, turns and places it into the far corner of the net. 2-2. 10 minutes later my heart's in my mouth as Aholou receives the ball in space and tries his luck from 25 yards, but his shot cracks off the bar and Samba manages to scramble it clear.


We stay level for the majority of the second half. Although the chance of Strasbourg dropping down to the division below are high, it's not a certainty yet and they aren't going without a fight. I don't care though. I want this done and I want it done today so that we can at least keep pace with Bourg. I roll the dice. We'll attack them relentlessly for the last 10 minutes and try to force the result.


In the 87th minute we're playing some nice football once again. We could have one last chance. Hikem passes to Foden, who passes to Fomba, 30 yards out. Hicham Aidir's level with the defensive line. Fomba tries to poke the ball through for him... But Hicham doesn't make the run. He steps back to try to collect the ball to his feet and it zips right past him. It's a breakdown in communication and the ball trickles slowly to a stop back into Strasbourg's box. It's over. Etienne plays the ball back to his keeper... And underhits it. In the blink of an eye, Aidir sprints into the box, beats both defender and keeper to the ball and prods it into the net. He's done it. We've fucking done it.


Defensive lockdown ensues, with Sissako and Raf replacing Joël and Aidir and a 3-3-2-1-1 shape deployed. It works. We see out the match by the skin of our teeth at 3-2.


https://youtu.be/wVvalL7aClc


I can't believe we pulled that off. A combination of my bad decisions and individual mistakes looked certain to cost us our spot in the title race, but Aidir's come through again. We're bloody promoted. Give that man the Star of the Season award. Give it to all of them.


As Crouchie, the coaching staff, the substitutes, the travelling fans and I spill onto the pitch to meet the players, I find myself unable to wipe the look of shock and amazement from my face. The noise is deafening and by the time I'm 20 feet onto the pitch I'm surrounded from all sides by the loyal Auxerre support, ruffling my hair and clapping me on the back as the stewards try to drag them off. Hit by sudden realisation, I ask nobody in particular "Bourg? What's the Bourg result?"


"Ç'est un match nul!" Replies a pissed-up gentleman directly in front of me. "Ç'est un match nul!"


I laugh with delight and celebrate with the fans. Bourg-en-Bresse bloody drew. This title race is still very much on.