99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Moursal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at US Moursal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ayoub Aboukhlal 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.
“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 US Moursal, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Moursal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Elect Sport go through and US Moursal 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.
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. US Moursal know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hassan Allamine provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. US Moursal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oumar Allamine provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at US Moursal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
10 goals in one match, Oumar Allamine on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of US Moursal and AS PSI.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Narcisse Oumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every US Moursal game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gazelle runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Moses Okoye did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ayoub Aboukhlal 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Narcisse Oumar 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at US Moursal, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdramane Abba kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Oumar Allamine will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at US Moursal escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Moursal can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Djibrine Adoum is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Narcisse Oumar 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 29 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.
It needed Oumar Allamine to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against CotonTchad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout12 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.” Abdramane Abba chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 US Moursal, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.50 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdoulaye Haroun is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between US Moursal and Gazelle, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 29 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.
Marked 9.66 — 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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ayoub Aboukhlal 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.
“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 US Moursal, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saleh Oumar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ayoub Aboukhlal 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Saleh Oumar has improved at 28, 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.
“I watch every US Moursal game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gazelle runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
US Moursal had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Foullah Edifice, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oumar Allamine signs something — a contract at US Moursal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutAli Mahamat knocks on the manager's door
SquadMahamat Abba is not doing himself any favours
The offer from Renaissance for Oumar Allamine 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.
Everything agreed with AS Etat Major, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ayoub Aboukhlal and US Moursal agree another 3 years.
Ayoub Aboukhlal 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.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at US Moursal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Narcisse Oumar 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 name of Brahim Allamine has come up in conversations US Moursal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.