Marked for Abdramane Abakar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Gérard Diarra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Abdramane Ndoram has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at AS DGSSIE is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmat Oumar 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
AS DGSSIE have made the call to AS Etat Major. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
US Moursal have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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 DGSSIE can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2028
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 DGSSIE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
$82.0K was the most the club would pay and US Moursal were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Mahamat Ngaradoumbe has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at AS DGSSIE is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Amr Shaaban gets it from the manager
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The name of Oumar Bechir keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AS DGSSIE say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at AS DGSSIE would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS DGSSIE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces29 May 2028
The mood at AS DGSSIE has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad29 May 2028
Words exchanged at AS DGSSIE
Nelson Djembe 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.
The dugout29 May 2028
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moubarak Djibrine’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad29 May 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Nelson Djembe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 May 2028
This is not rotation. Djibrine Adoum has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at AS DGSSIE is pretending otherwise.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Mbaiguedem, and the manager let it.
Market22 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gérard Diarra signs something — a contract at AS DGSSIE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 May 2028
Adam Moustapha has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS DGSSIE 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
The terraces15 Nov 2027
The mood at AS DGSSIE has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Gérard Diarra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Saleh Mbaiguedem, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
US Moursal next, and one man in the AS DGSSIE dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market15 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gérard Diarra signs something — a contract at AS DGSSIE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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 dugout15 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS DGSSIE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The penny has dropped for Ahmat Oumar
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at AS DGSSIE the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
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 DGSSIE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Abdramane Ndoram has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at AS DGSSIE is pretending otherwise.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Ahmat Oumar 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at AS DGSSIE
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market27 Sep 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Sep 2027
AS DGSSIE sink to position 13
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at AS DGSSIE
Nelson Djembe 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market13 Sep 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Ngaradoumbe has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market13 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saleh Mbaiguedem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market13 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdoulaye Bechir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Djibrine Adoum has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at AS DGSSIE is pretending otherwise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS DGSSIE, and both men came out saying it was fine.