“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 The request is on a desk at AS DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gérard Diarra 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmat Oumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Beaten 5 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nelson Djembe is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oumar Bechir did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Oumar Bechir 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AS DGSSIE has been clear about where Oumar Tokindang stands, which is more than many ever get.
Donald Perrin Tchakounte is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS DGSSIE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mahamat Ngaradoumbe provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 DGSSIE can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Mahamat Ngaradoumbe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AS DGSSIE and Gazelle.
Gérard Diarra 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 19 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.
Oumar Bechir, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 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.
Gérard Diarra 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmat Oumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nelson Djembe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moubarak Djibrine provided it, and the 7.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and AS Etat Major were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS DGSSIE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gérard Diarra 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Oumar Bechir 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmat Oumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 AS DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Gérard Diarra 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and a squad player 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Donald Perrin Tchakounte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Gérard Diarra 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS DGSSIE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at AS DGSSIE says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
The offer went to US Moursal 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.
Gérard Diarra 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.
Adam Moustapha was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $38.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gazelle have kept their man, and AS DGSSIE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. AS DGSSIE were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS DGSSIE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stars Jeunes Talents have done the hard part with AS Etat Major, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Ahmat Oumar again, and this time the name on the line is AS DGSSIE. Stars Jeunes Talents are listening politely and promising nothing.
Stars Jeunes Talents have gone to AS Etat Major 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idriss Hissein 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 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.
The mood at AS DGSSIE has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmat Oumar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idriss Hissein 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brahim Ndoram trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents 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.
11 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AS DGSSIE and AS Algoy, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Abdoulaye Haroun could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdoulaye Mbaiguedem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Abdoulaye Mbaiguedem 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idriss Hissein was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents 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.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Yannick Masra was the best thing in any of them.
A side in position 10 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS DGSSIE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moubarak Djibrine 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 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against US Moursal in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Yannick Masra 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.
Marked 6.52 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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 0‑1 Abdoulaye Haroun left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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 Brahim Ndoram is on it.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Yannick Masra was the best thing in any of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Idriss Mbaiguedem 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. AS DGSSIE know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. AS DGSSIE will try very hard not to make too much of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS DGSSIE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
AS DGSSIE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Algoy, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 17 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.
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.
He is 19 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Narcisse Allamine 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.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AS DGSSIE and Galactik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moubarak Djibrine 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the AS DGSSIE dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Idriss Haroun
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Idriss Haroun has come out of that comparison in the side, and AS DGSSIE have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Oumar Bechir, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moubarak Djibrine 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Moussa Abakar after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, AS DGSSIE have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
92 minutes played. Mahamat Ngaradoumbe found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and US Moursal went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and US Moursal were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahamat Ngaradoumbe 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Moussa Abakar, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moubarak Djibrine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the AS DGSSIE dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Moussa Abakar after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Moussa Ngaradoumbe is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stars Jeunes Talents will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idriss Hissein 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Abdoulaye Haroun chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. US Moursal defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and AS DGSSIE are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Mahamat Ngaradoumbe, 18 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stars Jeunes Talents will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Mahamat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Adam Mahamat 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 Idriss Hissein was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 DGSSIE can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at AS DGSSIE 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AS DGSSIE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AS DGSSIE than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS DGSSIE have done the hard part with AS Algoy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$8.0K was the most the club would pay and AS Algoy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
AS DGSSIE have made the call to US Moursal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Abdramane Ngaradoumbe and AS DGSSIE agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AS DGSSIE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer from CotonTchad for Adam Mahamat 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idriss Hissein 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 deal with AS Etat Major is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: US Moursal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
AS DGSSIE have gone to AS Algoy 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.
AS DGSSIE have made the call to Stars Jeunes Talents. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Youssouf Allamine arrives from US Moursal with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.