103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cotonsport Garoua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
A brace, and Ben Elliott takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ben Elliott provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jacques Mbiandjeu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Devon Koswal 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.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The new man at Cotonsport Garoua has worked with Ben Elliott before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jacques Mbiandjeu 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 Cotonsport Garoua 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cotonsport Garoua, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Jacques Mbiandjeu 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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 Stephane Etame is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cotonsport Garoua, another week without a signature from Jean Toko-Ekambi.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cotonsport Garoua will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 31 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
Nobody at Cotonsport Garoua 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacques Siani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 32 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Clinton Embolo are not good
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Cotonsport Garoua are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings20 Feb 2034
Landry Anguissa, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxime Mbarga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cotonsport Garoua the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cotonsport Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Desire Toko-Ekambi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cotonsport Garoua have lost him in all but the paperwork.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cotonsport Garoua has to find a result from somewhere.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cotonsport Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom6 Feb 2034
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Cotonsport Garoua until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Jacques Mbiandjeu 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacques Siani and Cotonsport Garoua agree another 3 years.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Serge Daura was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cotonsport Garoua people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Cotonsport Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jacques Mbiandjeu 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.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michel Mbia and Cotonsport Garoua agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Desire Toko-Ekambi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.