The mood at AS Etat Major 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.
81 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
The bid was some way short and AS Etat Major did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Moustapha 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.
116 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahamat Bechir will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Etat Major the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mahamat Tokindang 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS Etat Major know it.
123 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.
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Moustapha 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.
137 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.
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at AS Etat Major 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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Moustapha 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Oumar Doungous has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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.
Brahim Abba 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saleh Bechir and AS Etat Major agree another 3 years.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Adam Abba is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
Add another name to the list: Stars Jeunes Talents have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ahmat Ndoram. The answer from AS Etat Major has not changed — yet.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Etat Major can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Etat Major have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Moustapha 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 phone has started ringing about Ezechiel Moustapha again, and this time the name on the line is AS DGSSIE. AS Etat Major are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Etat Major they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmat Ndoram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Etat Major the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mahamat Tokindang 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Etat Major can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmat Ndoram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Etat Major the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mahamat Tokindang 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Etat Major can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Etat Major is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS Etat Major can tell you which week it ends in.
Mahamat Tokindang 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.
0‑4 to Elect Sport, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Etat Major is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 mood at AS Etat Major 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at AS Etat Major is running low.
The match ball belongs to Hassan Haroun, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Hassan Haroun, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Etat Major have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Etat Major they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The name of Joseph Molangoane has come up in conversations Gazelle were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. US Moursal moved on, Adoum Fachir reports back to Gazelle, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Karouch 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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Etat Major they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
“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 4 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Etat Major can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Etat Major is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Haroun 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 watch every AS Etat Major game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS DGSSIE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Idriss Oumar is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
0‑4 to Foullah Edifice, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Etat Major they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.