As usual, we have one or two trialists on board in the pre-season. Andy Gray is training with us, hoping to prove a point according to Mick Jones, while it’s being reported that the mystery trialist at Alfreton was Sebastien Faure.

Faure, a French anarchist and author of cheerily named The Universal Pain, for those of us who will admit to having searched him on Wikipedia, also doubles as a footballer and seems to be a centre-back, but is also linked to the centre mid and right-back roles by various sources, so possibly he would bring flexibility to the squad. Or the sites were wrong.

Aged 21, the 6’1″ rookie is a free agent after being released by Ligue 1’s Olympique Lyonnais this summer following a year on a professional contract. Not being deemed good enough for OL is no shame, with the club playing European football again next season. Indeed, although playing few games for them, he warmed the bench in the Champions League as far back as 2008.

Faure is obviously held in reasonably high regard by France, with 45 appearances in the junior national sides of varying levels. Faure’s junior career includes the 2008 U17’s Euros, where he was part of the French team to finish runner-up to Spain, the 2010 U19’s Euros, which France won, and was part of the 4th placed side in the 2011 U20’s World Cup.

All these achievements mean next to nothing for us, of course. Lest we forget Michael Ricketts is officially an ex-England International, and that promising youngster of the early noughties Simon Johnson (who now plays for Hinckley United) was also capped at U20 level. Neil Warnock and his staff will run their rule over the lad, who has a better pedigree than most trialists, while I’m sure we’ll all form opinions on him… here’s a grainy highlight reel from when he was 17 to legitimize our gut reactions!