Marked for Emmanuel Ntcham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jul 2033
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fortuna Mfou lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Jul 2033
“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.
The dugout18 Jul 2033
The manager makes an example of Emmanuel Ntcham
“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.
Market18 Jul 2033
The Joseph Mbock story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joseph Mbock signs something — a contract at Fortuna Mfou or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout18 Jul 2033
Franck Moukoudi asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Boardroom18 Jul 2033
The Fortuna Mfou academy earns its keep
69 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2032
Aminu Madu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortuna Mfou can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortuna Mfou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Aug 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nabil Mahrez and Fortuna Mfou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Fortuna Mfou asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Aug 2032
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Collins Kunde, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Fortuna Mfou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aminu Madu 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
A muscle injury sidelines Emmanuel Ntcham for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fortuna Mfou will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Cotonsport Garoua 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Panthere du Nde 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“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.
Match20 Sep 2031
Unisport Bafang left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“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.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
The afternoon ran through Joseph Mbock
Chances created: 14. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
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 0‑1 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Aminu Madu 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 ratings22 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
Marc Tsala Ndi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marc Tsala Ndi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.