It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Bakaridjan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mamady Condé 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Phiwokuhle Mjolo and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years.
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.
Marked 5.33. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Bakaridjan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AS Bakaridjan pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zakhele Shabangu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Bakaridjan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kevin Piedrahita 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Bakaridjan can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from US Bougouni for Zakhele Shabangu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Binga left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Mamady Condé 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Keaton Murray and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Thabiso Msane will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at AS Bakaridjan escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Mamady Condé 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Zakhele Shabangu again, and this time the name on the line is US Bougouni. AS Bakaridjan are listening politely and promising nothing.
It needed Thabiso Msane to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Afrique Foot Elite, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AS Bakaridjan and FC Diarra in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamady Condé 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.
Marked 8.41 — 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.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
1‑4 to Real Bamako, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Ethaghara 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.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zakhele Shabangu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Bakaridjan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamady Condé 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.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Mmatlou Sepale was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Phiwokuhle Mjolo and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.79 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Bakaridjan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kevin Piedrahita 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Kevin Piedrahita knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Bakaridjan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Bakaridjan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mamady Condé 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Bakaridjan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Bakaridjan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Piedrahita and AS Bakaridjan agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Bakaridjan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kamohelo Pheeane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Bakaridjan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
In brief
SquadMamady Condé falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Sakhile Mkhize for 15 days
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sadiq Ali 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.
Nobody at AS Bakaridjan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Djoliba go through and AS Bakaridjan go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Bakaridjan 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 AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Mamady Condé 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Bakaridjan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamady Condé 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.
Marked 8.64 — 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.
Keaton Murray 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Bakaridjan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Ethaghara 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Kevin Piedrahita 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.
Three points for AS Bakaridjan, 3‑1 the final word against US Bougouni in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Mamady Condé 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.
8 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sakhile Mkhize and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AS Bakaridjan has been clear about where Sakhile Mkhize stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Bakaridjan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mamady Condé 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.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. AS Korofina defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.