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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
AS Etat Major next, and one man in the Galactik dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A new face in his position, and Djibrine Adoum suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Galactik have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“I watch every Galactik game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CotonTchad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Tokindang 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 Hassan Mbaiguedem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abanga Mahamat Youssouf signs something — a contract at Galactik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Galactik, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galactik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Idriss Doungous, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
At 15 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.
11 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.
“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 Galactik, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galactik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam Ngaradoumbe is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
He is 17 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Mahamat Souleymane is 17, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galactik can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Narcisse 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.
“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 Galactik, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 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 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.
At 19 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.
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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galactik can pretend not to have heard.
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.
6 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.
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.
A season-long audition: AS Etat Major still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Galactik's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Stars Jeunes Talents will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Djibrine Oumar and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Ngaradoumbe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Narcisse Ngaradoumbe signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmat Allamine 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 easiest signature of my career.” Abdoulaye Haroun and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Stars Jeunes Talents have made the call to Foullah Edifice. 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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and both men came out saying it was fine.