There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hassane Boudina provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Gérard Diarra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Armand Moreau 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.
Position 6, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Gérard Diarra's mistake
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Gérard Diarra 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Gazelle is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Osée Natoyoum 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gérard Diarra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Renaissance.
A brace, and Mark Ojong takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mark Ojong provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marked 7.31 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Koffi Ayivi 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osée Natoyoum 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mark Ojong. 2‑1 against Aiglons, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdramane Mbainaissem and Gazelle agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ezechiel Tokindang kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Gazelle 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.