It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Renaissance asked and Elect Sport said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Ali Abba again, and this time the name on the line is AS PSI. Renaissance are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Amine El Maswab is on it.
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AS PSI waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dramane Souabou and Renaissance agree another 2 years.
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
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 Youssef Dalouzi is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Renaissance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Mahamat Oumar’s negotiating for him
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Abba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Youssef Dalouzi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Adam Mbaiguedem is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adam Mbaiguedem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. AS DGSSIE had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Zakaria Ajoughlal is on it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout19 Mar 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.” Saleh Allamine chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Félix Djoubairou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“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 2‑3 Saleh Allamine left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mahamat Oumar
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aiglons waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Saleh Allamine could afford to be generous.
Dramane Souabou 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ezechiel Allamine’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Renaissance needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Renaissance have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Dramane Souabou 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Djoubairou 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.
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 Adam Mbaiguedem is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Renaissance have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Dramane Souabou 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.
Nobody at Renaissance 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.