Soufiane Tannane 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa 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.
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.
“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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AS Algoy have had the benefit of it.
The offer went to AS Etat Major 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.
Ezechiel Mahamat 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 Algoy asked and Stars Jeunes Talents said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Adoum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 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.
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.
“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.
Galactik have gone to Aiglons 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.
Ousmane Biani 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.
Galactik asked and AS Etat Major said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Galactik, another week without a signature from Osman Adjei.
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 Galactik would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 have made the call to AS Etat Major. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
23 appearances at Galactik and the goals have stopped going in. AS Algoy lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The minutes were not coming at AS Algoy, so they will be looked for at Galactik. A loan out is not a goodbye, but it is always a question: about the player, or about the plan.
Soufiane Tannane 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ezechiel Bechir signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
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.
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 May 2027
Issa 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Djibrine Oumar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The name of Ezechiel Mahamat keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AS Algoy say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch24 May 2027
Marius Abba’s loan is measured in nothing happening
4 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Galactik. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Issa Adoum has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Issa 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.
“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.
23 appearances at Galactik and the goals have stopped going in. AS Algoy lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Samuel Bekale are not good
SquadThe selectors could not leave Idriss Ndoram out
Oumar Djimet 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.
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.
Ousmane Biani 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 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 0‑3 Idriss Mahamat left the room before anybody could ask which.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Youssouf Abdraman has moved up it.
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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AS Algoy in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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.
Position 11, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Marius Abba knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Simon Ihenacho is in the works
The dugoutMarius Abba is still being punished for one mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ousmane Biani. 2‑1 against AS Algoy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adam Ndoram and Galactik agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Idriss Mahamat kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Abba 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.
In brief
Player ratingsBrahim Oumar beats them one at a time
Ousmane Biani 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Abba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Marius Abba, 18, 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marius Abba’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.
In brief
The dugoutBrahim Oumar asks for a word with the manager
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 11 and 9 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdramane Hissein 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. Narcisse 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Idriss Mahamat after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
At 18 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
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 Benjamin Ngakoutou is on it.
Minute 89, against AS DGSSIE, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ilyes Mansouri is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Marius Abba is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Abanga Mahamat Youssouf has moved up it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Youssouf Abdraman 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.
Oumar Djimet 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, Idriss Mahamat could afford to be generous.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Narcisse Adoum, 16 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ali Bechir
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Ousmane Biani 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 point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Idriss Mahamat was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the Galactik dressing room was either.
Nobody at Galactik 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.
Aiglons go through and Galactik 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Narcisse Adoum is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Marked 7.61 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑4 Idriss Mahamat left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Galactik 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Galactik squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all 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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Narcisse 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. Djibrine 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. Saleh Doungous is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saleh Oumar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Oumar Bechir
BoardroomNobody left the AS Algoy dressing room in a hurry
Ousmane Biani 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.
8 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Galactik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdramane Mahamat 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.
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.
Asking a footballer to play somewhere else is asking him to be worse at something for a while in exchange for being better later. Marius Abba has agreed to that trade at Galactik, which takes more nerve than it sounds like.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stars Jeunes Talents have kept their man, and Galactik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Galactik are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Stars Jeunes Talents have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.