A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS Algoy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The terraces18 Oct 2027
The mood at AS Algoy 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Moussa Abakar 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 AS Algoy, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marius Doungous trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS Algoy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.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 instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Abdoulaye Mbainaissem 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdramane Haroun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Doungous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Algoy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
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.
AS Algoy asked and Aiglons said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Oumar Adoum 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.
“I watch every AS Algoy 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moussa Ngaradoumbe 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 AS Algoy can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at AS Algoy 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.
The phone has started ringing about Marius Doungous again, and this time the name on the line is US Moursal. AS Algoy are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AS Algoy asked and Foullah Edifice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Moussa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS PSI have kept their man, and AS Algoy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Issa Youssouf again, and this time the name on the line is Galactik. AS Algoy are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oumar Adoum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Souleymane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The mood at AS Algoy 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.
Moussa Abakar 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foullah Edifice have kept their man, and AS Algoy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oumar Adoum 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 Ali Souleymane 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 AS Algoy can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CotonTchad have kept their man, and AS Algoy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 new faces, and AS Algoy 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moussa Ngaradoumbe signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at AS Algoy says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Position 11 and 19 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.
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AS Algoy asked and Foullah Edifice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Galactik have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Issa Youssouf. The answer from AS Algoy has not changed — yet.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oumar Adoum 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 AS PSI 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 Brahim Goudja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Mahamat Adam Ali is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brahim Goudja trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brahim Goudja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
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 Nassar Koulelengar is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahamat Adam Ali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brahim Goudja signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order AS PSI prefer.
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 Mahamat Adam Ali is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordan Fotso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
AS Algoy next, and one man in the AS PSI dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Marius Doungous, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1 for Nassar Koulelengar, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Brahim Goudja 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marius Doungous 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 George Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Etoiles du Mande for Mahamat Adam Ali 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at AS PSI 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.
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 PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.37, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahamat Adam Ali. 1‑0 against Elect Sport, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Nobody at AS PSI 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 Marius Doungous’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AS PSI 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 Brahim Goudja signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Haroun Abakar 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.
7.24, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. AS PSI had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Moussa Mbaiguedem chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Goudja 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.
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.
Marked 7.62 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, AS PSI had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Moussa Mbaiguedem chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
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 Mahamat Adam Ali is on it.
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Brahim Goudja 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Moussa Mbaiguedem could afford to be generous.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
Nobody at AS PSI is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI 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. Ali Issa Blagué provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
At 21 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Gazelle spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every AS Algoy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS PSI runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.” Issa Oumar chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CotonTchad defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at AS Algoy was different afterwards.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to AS Etat Major
At 23 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.
Ali 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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, AS PSI have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Nobody at AS PSI is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Successful dribbles: 6. 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.
At 20 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.
“I watch every AS PSI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS Etat Major runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saleh Abakar 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.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 Moussa Mbaiguedem left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Hassan Ndoram 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 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.
The offer from CotonTchad for Oumar Adoum 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.
A loan enquiry to Foullah Edifice: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS PSI have done the hard part with AS Algoy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
AS PSI had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stars Jeunes Talents, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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: Marius Doungous arrives from AS Algoy with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
“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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ezechiel Souleymane had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Add another name to the list: AS PSI have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marius Doungous. The answer from AS Algoy has not changed — yet.
Hassan Ndoram 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 deal with Stars Jeunes Talents 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.
$29.0K 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Ngaradoumbe 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Mbainaissem 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adam Mbainaissem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adam Ndoram 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.