“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaider Victoria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Daniel Herrera 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Blanco 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at La Equidad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at La Equidad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Daniel Herrera 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Deportivo Pasto were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. La Equidad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Millonarios for Agustín Bolívar 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jordan Ferrín wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Daniel Herrera 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 offer went to Envigado this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Steeve Lima is living that version at La Equidad, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Devis Vásquez at that price
SquadWords at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colombe du Dja et Lobo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colombe du Dja et Lobo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colombe du Dja et Lobo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.45 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmond Sindjo 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.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colombe du Dja et Lobo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Yvan Mvondo Olama 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colombe du Dja et Lobo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steeve Lima will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colombe du Dja et Lobo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Colombe du Dja et Lobo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Colombe du Dja et Lobo have gone to Canon Yaounde with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The shirt still fits. Ange Constant Kenfack is back at Colombe du Dja et Lobo, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colombe du Dja et Lobo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colombe du Dja et Lobo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Everything agreed with Panthere du Nde, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PWD Bamenda have kept their man, and Colombe du Dja et Lobo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yvan Mvondo Olama 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Aigle Royal de Moungo for Édouard Sombang 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colombe du Dja et Lobo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Clarence Kokoro is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colombe du Dja et Lobo have done the hard part with Canon Yaounde, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Yvan Mvondo Olama 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canon Yaounde have kept their man, and Colombe du Dja et Lobo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edmond Sindjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yvan Mvondo Olama is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steeve Lima will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colombe du Dja et Lobo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colombe du Dja et Lobo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jean Pierre Nguele Nkotto has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edmond Sindjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Colombe du Dja et Lobo asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Canon Yaounde have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colombe du Dja et Lobo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colombe du Dja et Lobo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Édouard Sombang and Colombe du Dja et Lobo agree another 2 years.
Yvan Mvondo Olama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Edmond Sindjo 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Nobody at Colombe du Dja et Lobo 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.
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.
Colombe du Dja et Lobo and Gazelle Garoua have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Yvan Mvondo Olama 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. Edmond Sindjo 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.
Colombe du Dja et Lobo asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at Colombe du Dja et Lobo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steeve Lima will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colombe du Dja et Lobo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colombe du Dja et Lobo can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Steeve Lima has agreed terms with Stade Renard de Melong for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The offer went to Gazelle Garoua this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Colombe du Dja et Lobo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Arthur Yene 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yvan Mvondo Olama is on 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Yene 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yvan Mvondo Olama is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Colombe du Dja et Lobo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colombe du Dja et Lobo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Walid Khermouche has, at Colombe du Dja et Lobo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
7 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A new face in his position, and Edmond Sindjo suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Colombe du Dja et Lobo have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.