Marked for Marouane Lahmidini
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Clément Kanouté 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Botherel, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Léopold Ibanez knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Léopold Ibanez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and US Bougouni will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Akam Moses starts on the language
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at US Bougouni and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 May 2027
The mood at US Bougouni has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad24 May 2027
Clément Kanouté and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2027
Akam Moses asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout24 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 May 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces26 Apr 2027
Supporters organise against the US Bougouni 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Bougouni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léopold Ibanez, and the manager let it.
Market26 Apr 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Ibrahim Hassan knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at US Bougouni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Bréhima Diassana keeps appearing in other people's back pages. US Bougouni say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces29 Mar 2027
Anger at US Bougouni spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Transfer targets29 Mar 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Bougouni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at US Bougouni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Coulibaly 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ibrahim Raache commits to US Bougouni for another 3 years.
Market29 Mar 2027
Marouane Lahmidini is 20, and US Bougouni 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The formation has left Ibrahim Raache behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. US Bougouni will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market29 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at US Bougouni, another week without a signature from Marouane Lahmidini.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bréhima Diassana signs something — a contract at US Bougouni or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.