“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aigle Royal de la Menoua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ismaël Fansu and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ulrich Lobé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aigle Royal de la Menoua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Dynamo Douala moved on, Franck Kombobilo reports back to Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cecil Meyeke and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 4 years.
Ulrich Lobé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Rodrigue Ele falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aigle Royal de la Menoua people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Precious Agwu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bina Tombiri and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 1 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ngom Echabe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ulrich Lobé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdullahi Shehu and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 1 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Ngom Echabe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Aigle Royal de la Menoua had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Desire Mbeumo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Precious Agwu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Franck Kombobilo and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 2 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Ulrich Lobé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to PWD Bamenda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aigle Royal de la Menoua and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Desire Mbeumo to a room that had heard them before.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aigle Royal de la Menoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Cotonsport Garoua; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Ngom Echabe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Desire Mbeumo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aigle Royal de la Menoua has been clear about where Rostand Aliana Fossi stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Ulrich Lobé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu. 1‑0 against Fortuna Mfou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ngom Echabe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Bina Tombiri is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Desire Mbeumo could afford to be generous.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Precious Agwu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Aigle Royal de la Menoua had all but put away. Stade Renard de Melong will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maurice Beboum is on it.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdullahi Shehu and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 1 years.
Abdullahi Shehu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu. 1‑0 against PWD Bamenda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marcus Kouam is 20, and Aigle Royal de la Menoua have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Ngom Echabe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Desire Mbeumo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Panthere du Nde is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdullahi Shehu and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 1 years.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nupe Godstime was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alex Onyekuru after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ikenna Benjamin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bendel Insurance in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanley Amon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Biriduba and Bayelsa United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The name of Stanley Amon has come up in conversations Bayelsa United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Don-Pedro Samuel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alex Onyekuru to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nupe Godstime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bayelsa United has been clear about where Bina Tombiri stands, which is more than many ever get.