47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Korofina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Justus Ohanu 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Daouda Koné 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AS Korofina, another week without a signature from Justus Ohanu.
Isiaq Kamaideen is 19, and AS Korofina 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Renard de Melong lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Stade Renard de Melong, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alejandro Alfonso 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. Carlain Manga Mbah 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 The request is on a desk at Stade Renard de Melong, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Renard de Melong this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Renard de Melong this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Victor Ntokon is living that version at Stade Renard de Melong, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Renard de Melong this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
“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 Stade Renard de Melong, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Renard de Melong have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The offer from Aiglons for Houbed Ngoube 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.
Yannick Epané 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.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Renard de Melong lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
11 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.
“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 Stade Renard de Melong, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alejandro Alfonso 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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Stade Renard de Melong now know that too.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stade Renard de Melong has to find a result from somewhere.
Alejandro Alfonso 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. Jean Simplice Mbang 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 Stade Renard de Melong 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Renard de Melong can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Renard de Melong this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlain Manga Mbah 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.
Yannick Epané 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.