Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foullah Edifice will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Benjamin Merba 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 had been thinking. Bechir Djimet 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AS Algoy will make the call about Abdramane Oumar this week. Foullah Edifice have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foullah Edifice will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Foullah Edifice, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.37, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Benjamin Merba 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foullah Edifice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Bechir Djimet 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 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.
Benjamin Merba 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 had been thinking. Bechir Djimet 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 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Foullah Edifice will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foullah Edifice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bechir Djimet 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foullah Edifice know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Foullah Edifice, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foullah Edifice is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.10, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foullah Edifice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foullah Edifice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bechir Djimet 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.
Nobody at Foullah Edifice 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foullah Edifice lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.37, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Abdelaziz Issa 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.
Add another name to the list: Aiglons have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdramane Oumar. The answer from Foullah Edifice has not changed — yet.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foullah Edifice lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foullah Edifice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdelaziz Issa 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.
Squad19 May 2031
Bechir Djimet 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.
Position 1, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foullah Edifice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdelaziz Issa 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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Bechir Djimet 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 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 Muhammad Natsir trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdramane Mbaiguedem did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foullah Edifice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Abdelaziz Issa 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.
Elect Sport will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Foullah Edifice were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oumar Mbaiguedem did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.38 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Foullah Edifice know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Abdelaziz Issa 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 19 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foullah Edifice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdelaziz Issa 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kita. 3‑2 against Aiglons, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
Kita was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
SquadBechir Djimet falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsMervin Chand changes it off the bench
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Benjamin Merba will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Foullah Edifice escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Position 2, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Benjamin Merba provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saleh Oumar did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Maxwell Odundo, marked 7.74, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdramane Oumar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foullah Edifice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Foullah Edifice will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Muhammad Natsir and Foullah Edifice agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Aiglons will make the call about Abdramane Oumar this week. Foullah Edifice have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kita provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdramane Mbaiguedem did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdramane Oumar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foullah Edifice 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 Foullah Edifice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bechir Djimet 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.