Marked for Ali Abba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Ahmat Abakar has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AS Etat Major can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Etat Major is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Issa Mbaiguedem 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
Add another name to the list: AS PSI have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Youssouf Ndoram. The answer from AS Etat Major has not changed — yet.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdramane Allamine and AS Etat Major agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
A loan move for Florent Warna is in the works
AS Etat Major have made the call to Foullah Edifice. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Stars Jeunes Talents 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 May 2029
“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.
Squad14 May 2029
Issa Mbaiguedem 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 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ali Abba and AS Etat Major agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmat Doungous was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmat Doungous, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 May 2029
Ahmat Mbaiguedem 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 May 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Etat Major is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market7 May 2029
“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 AS Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 May 2029
Jordan Fotso 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.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brahim Haroun and AS Etat Major agree another 3 years.
Squad7 May 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Marius Abba
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marius Abba has come out of that comparison in the side, and AS Etat Major have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Brahim Haroun
“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.
Market7 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Etat Major know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout7 May 2029
Ali Abba loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ali Abba's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Pressure builds in the AS Etat Major boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Jordan Fotso 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.
Market30 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mahamat Allamine has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market30 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oumar Haroun has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market30 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Moussa Moustapha has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market30 Apr 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Abba 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Ahmat Doungous 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brahim Mbaiguedem has written the date down.