45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Algoy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
AS Algoy ran out of time with CotonTchad. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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 Abdoulaye Oumar is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brahim Bechir signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Algoy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al-Shoulla have made their interest known and AS Algoy have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
AS Algoy asked and US Moursal 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: CotonTchad have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saleh Djimet. The answer from AS Algoy has not changed — yet.
A loan enquiry to Stars Jeunes Talents: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAbdoulaye Oumar has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutIdriss Haroun asks for a word with the manager
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Algoy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He is 17, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
AS Algoy 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Algoy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
AS Algoy have made the call to Elect Sport. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Stars Jeunes Talents: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
In brief
The dugoutIdriss Haroun knocks on the manager’s door
SquadThe training reports on Saleh Djimet are not good
He is 17, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AS Algoy know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saleh Djimet and AS Algoy agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hassan Abakar signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ezechiel Souleymane has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmat Doungous provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 20 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.
At 18 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. AS Algoy will try not to make too much of 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.
He is 17, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 0‑1 Oumar Bechir left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Djibrine Ngaradoumbe is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Stars Jeunes Talents wanted more than $4.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
AS Algoy ran out of time with CotonTchad. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
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.” Oumar Bechir chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hassan Abakar did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oumar Bechir after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A season average of 6.61 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AS Algoy know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmat Doungous provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hassan Abakar did not need any: 8.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 18 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Oumar Bechir could afford to be generous.
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.
“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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Up for the corner, and Hassan Abakar delivers — 7.00
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Hassan Abakar scored, was marked 7.00, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Djimet, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Oumar Bechir to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahamat Djimet will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Algoy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Idriss Tokindang, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.” Oumar Bechir chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aiglons next, and one man in the AS Algoy dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gérard Diarra’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AS Algoy needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 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.
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 Djibrine Ngaradoumbe is on it.
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.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee AS Algoy could ask drops and the wages Mahamat Djimet can ask rise.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS Algoy have done the hard part with AS Etat Major, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
AS Algoy asked and CotonTchad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Stars Jeunes Talents: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Narcisse Allamine signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Saleh Djimet are not good
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Algoy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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.
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 Hassan Abakar is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Narcisse Allamine signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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.
Saleh Adoum, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 17 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ahmat Doungous. 1‑0 against AS DGSSIE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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 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.
0‑3 to AS PSI, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Algoy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oumar Bechir after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS Algoy can tell you which week it ends in.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezechiel Bechir 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.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Algoy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
5 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AS Algoy will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
1‑5 to AS PSI, 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.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Algoy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AS Algoy and AS PSI, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahamat Mahamat 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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Algoy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
7.94, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. AS Algoy had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Oumar Bechir, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.