Marked for Patrick Djiku
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jul 2030
Stephen Okola 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.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at CotonTchad now.
Market29 Jul 2030
Add another name to the list: Gazelle have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kafiatur Rizky. The answer from CotonTchad has not changed — yet.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Idriss Moustapha 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Madaoua Tchiva has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CotonTchad 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jun 2030
CotonTchad are in real trouble now
Position 11, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market10 Jun 2030
The offer from AS Etat Major for Florent Warna 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.
Market10 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Patrick Djiku: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CotonTchad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Jun 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CotonTchad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Apr 2030
Léger Djimrangar damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
Pressure builds in the CotonTchad boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Idriss Mbainaissem did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Chinedu Eze: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CotonTchad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Mar 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Idriss Mbainaissem. 1‑0 against Gazelle, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Mohammed 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.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
15 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.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
15 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
The numbers do not look good at CotonTchad
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market27 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CotonTchad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Simiyu 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Patrick Djiku, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Wages eat 99% of everything CotonTchad earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.