96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Desire Song will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
SquadWords at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Colombe du Dja et Lobo for Joel Mbarga 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ernest Djiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Patrick Mbeumo has come up in conversations PWD Bamenda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
A 2‑2 win over Cotonsport Garoua, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Cotonsport Garoua kept coming because nothing stopped them, and PWD Bamenda will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 PWD Bamenda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Panthere du Nde for Joel Mbarga 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PWD Bamenda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 PWD Bamenda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PWD Bamenda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alvin Binsto 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.
Squad6 Apr 2043
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eytan Havugimana 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alvin Binsto 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.
Squad9 Mar 2043
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mohamed Abdellaoui commits to PWD Bamenda for another 2 years.
Squad9 Feb 2043
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
Mohamed Abdellaoui 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Naledi Hlongwane will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at PWD Bamenda escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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 PWD Bamenda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Aigle Royal de la Menoua for Trezeguet Marwan 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mohamed Abdellaoui is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at PWD Bamenda 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PWD Bamenda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It needed Mohamed Abdellaoui to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Panthere du Nde, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda 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 PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad15 Sep 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
Mohamed Abdellaoui 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvin Binsto signs something — a contract at PWD Bamenda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 PWD Bamenda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Cayden Cole again, and this time the name on the line is Fauve Azur Elite. PWD Bamenda are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from Fauve Azur Elite for Ernest Djiku 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.
Alvin Binsto 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.
Squad1 Sep 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eytan Havugimana 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Clinton Ondoa is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Position 2, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Aug 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
Mohamed Abdellaoui 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alvin Binsto 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.
Squad21 Jul 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PWD Bamenda can pretend not to have heard.
Fábio Matheus 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Jun 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Khalifa 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.
Nobody at PWD Bamenda 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.
Position 2, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PWD Bamenda can pretend not to have heard.
Fábio Matheus 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.
The offer from Fauve Azur Elite for Ernest Djiku 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.
In brief
SquadWords at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PWD Bamenda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2042
Joseph Aliu 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda 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 PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Apr 2042
Joseph Aliu 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
In brief
BoardroomThe PWD Bamenda production line keeps running
MarketThe clock does Gift Isioma’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Mar 2042
Joseph Aliu 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 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fábio Matheus 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.
Squad17 Feb 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Aliu 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: Mohamed Abdellaoui. 1‑0 against Victoria United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda 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 PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Boris Mani has just signed for PWD Bamenda, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Feb 2042
Joseph Aliu 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.
He is 19, and nobody at PWD Bamenda signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
16 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 PWD Bamenda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Gilfranck Peto reports back to PWD Bamenda with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximilian Wagner will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Patrick Mbeumo has come up in conversations PWD Bamenda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Febe Fritz Gilles will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at PWD Bamenda escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Fábio Matheus 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.
Squad20 Jan 2042
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Aliu 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. PWD Bamenda found something the first half had given no notice of, and Stade Renard de Melong could not hold what they had.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fábio Matheus 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.
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Aliu 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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Nov 2041
Nicolas Ondoa wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Nicolas Ondoa found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Victoria United went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around PWD Bamenda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fábio Matheus 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.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. PWD Bamenda rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Gazelle Garoua had no answer to any of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fábio Matheus 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation PWD Bamenda did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Oct 2041
Words at PWD Bamenda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Aliu 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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PWD Bamenda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Mbeumo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around PWD Bamenda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alvin Binsto 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Clinton Ondoa is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PWD Bamenda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.