Marked for Anes Abed
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2032
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Joseph Elie Tiba, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad8 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Clinton Jephta 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Precious Agwu makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
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 dugout8 Mar 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamadou Ahidjo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
A brace, and Precious Agwu takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Precious Agwu provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match21 Feb 2032
Panthere du Nde make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad23 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Feb 2032
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Precious Agwu 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.
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Oct 2031
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match1 Oct 2031
A 5‑2 win over Dynamo Douala, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad6 Oct 2031
55 days out for Kendry Domingo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panthere du Nde will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Market6 Oct 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panthere du Nde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Mohamed Moluh Mounta 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.
Match1 Oct 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Panthere du Nde and Dynamo Douala, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
Houbed Ngoube was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.86. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Olympique Akbou have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Market2 Sep 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Olympique Akbou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Olympique Akbou until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anes Abed is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fethallah Tahar commits to Olympique Akbou for another 2 years.
Market2 Sep 2030
The shirt still fits. Houssem Atal is back at Olympique Akbou, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fethallah Tahar
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique Akbou lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Aug 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympique Akbou have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Omar Mahrez has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Olympique Akbou can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad5 Aug 2030
61 days out for Ubong Williams after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympique Akbou will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market5 Aug 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdallah Hassan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympique Akbou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Anes Abed is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Hicham Messiad 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fethallah Tahar
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique Akbou lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Ubong Williams out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique Akbou will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market29 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympique Akbou have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market29 Jul 2030
Joël Bakanda has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Olympique Akbou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jun 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fethallah Tahar
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique Akbou lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Olympique Akbou
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match24 Jun 2030
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market24 Jun 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympique Akbou people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Ubong Williams breaks a bone — 105 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Jun 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympique Akbou can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jun 2030
The offer from CS Constantine for Anes Abed was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Jun 2030
Joël Bakanda has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Olympique Akbou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Jun 2030
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympique Akbou lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces17 Jun 2030
Supporters organise against the Olympique Akbou board
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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Ubong Williams breaks a bone — 114 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ES Ben Aknoun waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympique Akbou is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Olympique Akbou have done the hard part with ASO Chlef, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Hicham Messiad 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.
Market17 Jun 2030
The name of Anes Abed has come up in conversations Olympique Akbou were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
ASO Chlef will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tarek Bouabta has pre-agreed a move to Olympique Akbou, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 May 2030
Fethallah Tahar damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad6 May 2030
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad6 May 2030
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Deals ran out and nothing came in behind them. A commercial department only fails in public once the football has been failing in private for a while.
The dugout6 May 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympique Akbou, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 May 2030
Rayane Yesli loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Rayane Yesli's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad6 May 2030
Rayane Yesli has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Market6 May 2030
Still no signature from Anes Abed
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Olympique Akbou could get for him.