Marked for Elyes Farhi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Bakaridjan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Issa Djiguiba 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Hamidou Kanté 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aires Nanque, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Bourama Diallo has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Real Bamako next, and one man in the AS Bakaridjan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market27 Mar 2028
The name of Makan Camara keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AS Bakaridjan say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Aires Nanque has had enough of the bench
“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 AS Bakaridjan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jan 2028
The knee: Aires Nanque out for 50 days
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Bakaridjan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and US Bougouni waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Bakaridjan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Real Bamako, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match29 Jan 2028
4 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Issa Djiguiba 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Aboubacar Haïdara 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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elyes Farhi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Bourama Diallo out for 60 days
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.
Match3 Nov 2027
Out, 1‑2 to Etoiles du Mande, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match6 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Djoliba, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to AS Bakaridjan's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AS Bakaridjan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Nov 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Boujad and AS Bakaridjan agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Issa Djiguiba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bourama Diallo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Bourama Diallo out for 67 days
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.
Match30 Oct 2027
4 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.
Squad1 Nov 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 AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at AS Bakaridjan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamidou Kanté 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
0‑2 to US Forces Armees, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Mohamed Boujad
“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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ousmane Malle to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Elyes Farhi is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Elyes Farhi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Both of them Boua Kane's — 8.72
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.72, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Salikou Diarra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mohammed Bangoura 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elyes Farhi and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ousmane Malle on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
4 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.
Squad22 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 AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alou Doumbia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
The game went through Boua Kane — 6.41
Marked 6.41 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market22 Feb 2027
He is 19, and nobody at AS Bakaridjan signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Elyes Farhi and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.