42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Forces Armees lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at US Forces Armees, another week without a signature from Rui Dabó.
“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 Forces Armees, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Karamoko Bamba 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. US Forces Armees will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I watch every US Forces Armees game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at US Bougouba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prosper Ibekwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 24 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Modibo Djenepo. 2‑0 against US Bougouni, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Prosper Ibekwe 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 easiest signature of my career.” Alieson Kamara and US Forces Armees agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Forces Armees this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at US Forces Armees, another week without a signature from Rui Dabó.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mamadou Kouyate after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. US Forces Armees will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Karamoko Bamba is 20, and US Forces Armees 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 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Mamadou Kouyate could afford to be generous.