“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 Algoy can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezechiel Mbainaissem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Issa Abba has come out of that comparison in the side, and AS Algoy have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Algoy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hassan Doungous trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Algoy can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Algoy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mohamed El Ouardi 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Moussa Haroun’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Galactik needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ousmane Biani signs something — a contract at Galactik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
They sit in position 10 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Galactik asked and Ghazl El Mahalla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. AS Etat Major had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Galactik told Dhayfallah Kadri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Mohamed El Ouardi is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahamat Bechir after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Hassan Abba, 14, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Galactik would like this to lead.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Galactik enter the window
Abanga Mahamat Youssouf 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.
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.
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 Ousmane Biani is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Moussa Haroun’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Galactik needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Galactik 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Galactik have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $50.0K — a club that wants Issa Hissein enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Galactik have done the hard part with AS PSI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Galactik have gone to US Moursal 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.
$13.0K was the most the club would pay and US Moursal 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Etat Major have kept their man, and Galactik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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 Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Algoy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Adam Abakar 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 name of Hassan Doungous has come up in conversations AS Algoy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Mbainaissem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Galactik have done the hard part with AS Algoy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Mahamat Ali Hassan arrives from Renaissance with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Ousmane Hissein arrives from Renaissance with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.