Marked for Stephane Moukoudi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jan 2036
1‑6 against PWD Bamenda, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market14 Jan 2036
The bid was some way short and Gazelle Garoua did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings14 Jan 2036
David Ngameni, 33, rolls back the years — 7.94
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Jan 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Jan 2036
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gazelle Garoua and PWD Bamenda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Jan 2036
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.
Squad14 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brian Melingui Tsanga, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
Boardroom14 Jan 2036
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Oct 2035
7 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Marcel Djialeu 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kazobar Kasongo 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 ratings29 Oct 2035
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gazelle Garoua.
Match27 Oct 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad29 Oct 2035
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gazelle Garoua have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2035
Victoria United ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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 Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Marcel Djialeu, 33, rolls back the years — 8.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad8 Oct 2035
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Marcel Djialeu, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match6 Oct 2035
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gazelle Garoua are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Oct 2035
Unisport Bafang left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Kazobar Kasongo 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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2035
Marcel Djialeu 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Tumiso Mogakwe 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Tumiso Mogakwe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gazelle Garoua 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxime Ngamaleu
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle Garoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Mar 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gazelle Garoua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Mar 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gazelle Garoua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Jan 2035
11 matches without a win for Gazelle Garoua
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Gazelle Garoua are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Maxime Ngamaleu damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Market15 Jan 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Said Aboubakar Souley will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gazelle Garoua the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Jan 2035
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad15 Jan 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Ogino Zeukang 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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Jan 2035
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. PWD Bamenda came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market15 Jan 2035
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Jean Anguissa leaves Gazelle Garoua the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2034
Kwadwo Sulemana damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2034
Pressure builds in the Gazelle Garoua boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market14 Aug 2034
The offer from Unisport Bafang for Stephane Moukoudi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kwadwo Sulemana
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle Garoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
Pierre Hongla has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Gazelle Garoua can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad7 Aug 2034
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Brian Melingui Tsanga, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Marcel Djialeu 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.
Market7 Aug 2034
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Gazelle Garoua have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2034
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tumiso Mogakwe 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.