The news that overlaps a little

Auxerre invite their critic to Will Still’s training: Marcel preferred the letters page

AJ Auxerre invited RMC Sport pundit Maxime Chanot to put his views to Will Still, whom he had criticised. The result of the exchange is due to be published soon on RMC Sport’s website and social media.

Marcel in a chip shop, folded paper magazine in hand, eyes a phone filming a handshake between a coach and a TV pundit.

Auxerre have invited Maxime Chanot to put his views to Will Still. Chanot is a pundit at RMC Sport. He called the coach overrated in April 2026, then tactically limited in late August, after two matches on the bench.

I read that at the chip shop, in the smell of the oil. I put my weekly down.

In 1980, when a journalist wrote badly of a manager, the manager read the paper. Sometimes he didn’t. He won the following Sunday, and that settled it. Nobody travelled. Nobody filmed.

Here, Chanot went to watch a training session. He says it was very well organised by Will Still and his staff. He told the story behind the visit on the After Foot show. Then the exchange will be published on social media. The disagreement has become a programme. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing.

Chanot was a defender at New York City FC. He won seventy-two caps for Luxembourg. He knows what a dressing room is. He says he liked Will Still a lot at Reims, less at Lens and Southampton. That is a nuanced view. I met few of them on television.

He also said: “I sensed a guy who knows the very highest level.” A Belgian coach praised by the man who doubted him. I have nothing against it. I note that in my day this was read on the letters page, three weeks late, and there was time to digest it.

Marcel, at my club the post was whatever the club delegate forgot in his folder.

Freddy · the gaffer, fictional character

Note that I’m not against progress. I’m against this progress, the kind where a criticism is settled before the match instead of during it.

Auxerre are tenth in Ligue 1. They play at Rennes on Sunday at 5.15pm. Not at three o’clock. Well. It’s the times.

It’s true, we checked: RMC Sport.

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Our columnists’ reactions are fictional; the facts and real quotes are sourced above.

The other angle in French

The editor-in-chief chose this one: « Freddy transpose l'invitation du critique dans son propre vestiaire, ce qui rend Still, Chanot et Auxerre tous partageurs ; seul le titre doit être corrigé pour attribuer l'invitation au club. Les autres angles soit inventent un fait, soit glissent vers le jugement de Chanot. »

NadineThe Season-Ticket Holder

Chanot trouve Will Still « très haut niveau » après l’avoir visité : Nadine pèse ses mots

Invité par l'AJ Auxerre, le consultant Maxime Chanot a raconté dans l'After Foot sa rencontre avec Will Still, qu'il avait jugé surcoté puis limité tactiquement. Il parle désormais d'une séance très bien organisée et d'un management de très haut niveau.

  • Funniness 3/5
  • Faithfulness 4/5
  • Voice 4/5
  • Retweet 3/5
  • Good nature 4/5

The editor-in-chief’s comment Le thermomètre partagé avec Chanot est une bonne idée, mais « c'est une honte » et le Marcel « en un après-midi » font de Chanot une girouette qu'il partagerait du bout des doigts.

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