It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Gazelle Garoua is running low.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gazelle Garoua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Gazelle Garoua will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Jordy Doumbe Youmba 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Said Aboubakar Souley trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Kendry Domingo’s negotiating for him
“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 The request is on a desk at Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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 Maël Monyebe is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
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 Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Tchari and Gazelle Garoua agree another 4 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gazelle Garoua told Colbert Binni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Everything agreed with Cotonsport Garoua, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maël Monyebe and Gazelle Garoua agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer went to Aigle Royal de Moungo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordy Doumbe Youmba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Colbert Binni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gazelle Garoua are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Boris Moukandjo recited it perfectly.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Gazelle Garoua close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. a squad player is living that version at Gazelle Garoua, and it tends to show in the first month.
Djakao Barka 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.
$57.0K was the most the club would pay and Stade Renard de Melong 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stars Jeunes Talents will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stars Jeunes Talents people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stars Jeunes Talents have done the hard part with Gazelle, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ali Diakité and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 1 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS PSI have kept their man, and Stars Jeunes Talents go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Adam Tokindang.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
Position 13 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
In brief
The dugoutAdam Tokindang faces a manager he fell out with
The dugoutMarius Adoum knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Brahim Hissein has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stars Jeunes Talents people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Adam Tokindang.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ali Diakité's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Adam Tokindang.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Allamine trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Hassan Ngaradoumbe is on it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stars Jeunes Talents will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Stars Jeunes Talents is running low.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stars Jeunes Talents have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS PSI have kept their man, and Stars Jeunes Talents go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutAdam Tokindang faces a manager he fell out with
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 131 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 Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Algoy is saying, and nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents is enjoying the guessing.
Ali 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.
Add another name to the list: Aiglons have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about a squad player. The answer from Stars Jeunes Talents has not changed — yet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Idriss Mahamat and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Adam Tokindang.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Stars Jeunes Talents is running low.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stars Jeunes Talents have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ali Diakité and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marius Adoum trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stars Jeunes Talents know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ali Diakité 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.
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 Ezechiel Mbaiguedem is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stars Jeunes Talents know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
Stars Jeunes Talents have made the call to AS DGSSIE. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
7 goals in 23 games at US Moursal — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Stars Jeunes Talents updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Ali Allamine’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
In brief
The dugoutMarius Adoum asks for a word with the manager
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. a squad player will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ali Diakité is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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 Hassan Ngaradoumbe is on it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Youssouf Tokindang has his answer from Stars Jeunes Talents; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ali Diakité was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Allamine trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
Ali Mbaiguedem 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. a squad player will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents know it.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Stars Jeunes Talents had all but put away. Aiglons will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Brahim Hissein after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Achille Kunde’s exile
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. a squad player will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Mbaiguedem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Djibrine Ngaradoumbe and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Allamine 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hassan Ngaradoumbe’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Stars Jeunes Talents 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 Said Hamdallah signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 to AS PSI, 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 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.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Stars Jeunes Talents will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
25 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. a squad player will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Hassan Bechir 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.
23 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stars Jeunes Talents have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Mbaiguedem 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.
Abdramane Doungous 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then US Moursal scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
22 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stars Jeunes Talents has to find a result from somewhere.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stars Jeunes Talents they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ali Diakité 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Idriss Mahamat and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years.
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stars Jeunes Talents has to find a result from somewhere.
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. Ali Mbaiguedem 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stars Jeunes Talents has to find a result from somewhere.
Ali 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.
AS PSI left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Nov 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 Brahim Hissein left the room before anybody could ask which.
AS DGSSIE next, and one man in the Stars Jeunes Talents dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Ezechiel Mbaiguedem is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Diazayisua Mamona signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stars Jeunes Talents have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Mbaiguedem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to US Moursal to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stars Jeunes Talents, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Hassan Ngaradoumbe is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stars Jeunes Talents has been clear about where Ali Djimet stands, which is more than many ever get.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stars Jeunes Talents would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Mbaiguedem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abdramane Doungous 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Brahim Hissein was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Stars Jeunes Talents dressing room was either.
Something was said to a squad player and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmat Mbaiguedem and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gazelle in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Stars Jeunes Talents that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ali Mbaiguedem 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.
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.
“I did not go to US Moursal to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
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 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Stars Jeunes Talents can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents know it.
Ali 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AS PSI will make the call about Adam Hissein this week. Stars Jeunes Talents have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ali Diakité was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Mahamat Mbaiguedem 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.
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.
“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 DGSSIE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmat 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AS DGSSIE are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.