Marked for Ekene Emmanuel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
Youness Mokhtar damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rian Miziar has agreed terms with CotonTchad for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad26 Jul 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
Gazelle spend $12.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $12.0K for Esaie Djikoloum, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Ekene Emmanuel, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market26 Jul 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: AS Algoy will make the call about Abdoulaye Moustapha this week. Gazelle have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Wages eat 87% of everything Gazelle earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market26 Jul 2027
Experience through the door at Gazelle
Esaie Djikoloum arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Rian Miziar in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Meshack Maphangule 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Satrio Azhar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gazelle 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Youness Mokhtar damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Satrio Azhar decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match7 Apr 2027
Cup progress for Gazelle
A 0‑0 win over Foullah Edifice, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market12 Apr 2027
“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 Gazelle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Renaissance will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dedi Kusnandar has pre-agreed a move to Gazelle, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
The kick that got away from Rian Miziar
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.36 on the card, and the Gazelle support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youness Mokhtar
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Joseph Molangoane for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Gazelle will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Satrio Azhar 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
5.72. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youness Mokhtar
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Mar 2027
Satrio Azhar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Mar 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ali Mbaiguedem: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A chastening introduction for Ekene Emmanuel — 5.63
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.63 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Satrio Azhar in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 5.59. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youness Mokhtar
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.66 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Issa Doungous: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match13 Mar 2027
Foullah Edifice made Gazelle work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Rian Miziar in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market15 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Meshack Maphangule’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
5.64. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Feb 2027
Gazelle sink to position 11
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Feb 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
Match9 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Gazelle
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Meshack Maphangule 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jone Lalagavesi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jone Lalagavesi has just signed for Gazelle, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rian Miziar 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A defender's afternoon for Osée Natoyoum
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Satrio Azhar in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youness Mokhtar, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“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 Gazelle will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A move Ekene Emmanuel would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ekene Emmanuel is living that version at Gazelle, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Youness Mokhtar
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ibrahim Hassan and Gazelle agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market9 Nov 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Gazelle signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market9 Nov 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Gazelle signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Match7 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Renaissance defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 5.57 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.