Marked for Mahamat Mbaiguedem
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 May 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 The request is on a desk at Gazelle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Aziz Sabiri 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
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hasnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Hassane Boudina 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
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Etat Major lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Bicto Tyonga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
One of those days for Issa Abba
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match17 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
23 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Gazelle
7 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Mahamat Mbaiguedem, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Gazelle
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Aziz Sabiri gets it from the manager
“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.
Match17 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
No place for Mahamat Abba on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Gazelle pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
A Gazelle teenager takes the young player award
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Market
The Osée Natoyoum question follows Gazelle around
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Etat Major lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to AS Etat Major's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AS Etat Major has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Bicto Tyonga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omar Hakimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Etat Major, and 0 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ezechiel Ndoram chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match20 Mar 2027
Point won or two lost for AS Etat Major?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against US Moursal? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Adam Moustapha knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adam Moustapha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Mar 2027
Every point is an argument now for Gazelle
Position 12 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
This is not rotation. Adoum Fachir has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gazelle is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hassane Boudina and Gazelle agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Aziz Sabiri has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hasnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdramane Adoum has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match6 Mar 2027
0‑1 to AS Algoy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Aziz Sabiri
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Osée Natoyoum 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
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 Hassane Boudina is on it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Oumar Mahamat
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Aziz Sabiri moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Gazelle than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Saleh Mbainaissem’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gazelle needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Gazelle would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Abdelaziz Makine keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Gazelle say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Brahim Mahamat knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brahim Mahamat trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Gazelle the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to AS Algoy
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The dugout
The manager comes out for Aziz Sabiri
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Gazelle
Abdelaziz Makine 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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 targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Etat Major have kept their man, and Gazelle go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Adoum Fachir’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gazelle.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.78 on the card, and the Gazelle support went home talking about one name.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Adam Adoum on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Feb 2027
Gazelle are in real trouble now
Position 13, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match6 Feb 2027
7 matches without a win for Gazelle
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Gazelle are no longer polite ones.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
This is not rotation. Adoum Fachir has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gazelle is pretending otherwise.
Match6 Feb 2027
Gazelle leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match6 Feb 2027
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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 terraces8 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahamat Mbaiguedem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Market8 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adam Adoum has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdelaziz Makine had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑4 by Stars Jeunes Talents, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match20 Jan 2027
Gazelle bow out of the cup
Galactik go through and Gazelle go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.23, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Gazelle
5 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Gazelle had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Aiglons, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Gazelle
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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 targets25 Jan 2027
Gazelle asked and AS PSI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
14 saves: Aziz Sabiri was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Gazelle
Abdelaziz Makine and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdelaziz Makine. 1‑0 against Foullah Edifice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Adam Adoum, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 14 years old, Moussa Ngaradoumbe became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market28 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdelaziz Makine signs something — a contract at Gazelle or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 2026
Adoum Fachir 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Aziz Sabiri
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Mahamat Mbaiguedem, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Gazelle
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Gazelle against Aiglons
1‑3 to Aiglons, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Adoum Fachir
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Abdelaziz Makine is still being punished for one mistake
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Hasnaoui and Gazelle agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑1 to AS Algoy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Aziz Sabiri
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Adam Adoum to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
AS Etat Major next, and one man in the Gazelle dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Oumar Mahamat
Nobody at Gazelle is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gazelle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mahamat Mbaiguedem did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahamat Mbaiguedem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over AS DGSSIE, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Djibrine Mbaiguedem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Moussa Tokindang has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marius Moustapha commits to Gazelle for another 3 years.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gazelle had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gazelle may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Gazelle's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gazelle has to find a result from somewhere.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Gazelle
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Adam Adoum left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bicto Tyonga 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 AS Etat Major this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Etat Major, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AS Etat Major, another week without a signature from Saleh Oumar.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
AS Etat Major take on the side everybody is chasing
Renaissance arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Ahmat Ndoram talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Etat Major know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Etat Major, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gazelle had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stars Jeunes Talents, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$13.0K on the table at Stars Jeunes Talents. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gazelle asked and AS Algoy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osée Natoyoum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Saleh Mbainaissem arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gazelle are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Aziz Sabiri 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Wages are the one subject a dressing room never discusses and always knows. Saleh Mbainaissem has signed terms at Gazelle that will be quietly noted by everybody who trains beside him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Etat Major can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to PWD Bamenda 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hassan Allamine 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AS Etat Major asked and US Moursal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Gazelle have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mahamat Mbaiguedem. The answer from AS Etat Major has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Hakimi 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Allamine, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with AS Algoy; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $54.8K — a club that wants Bicto Tyonga enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gazelle have done the hard part with Stars Jeunes Talents, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Gazelle
Abbas Maigué and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to AS Etat Major: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hassan Moustapha and Gazelle agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oumar Mahamat, and the manager let it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Brahim Mahamat may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.