It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Unisport Bafang they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Becker Tcheuani 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.
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 Dimitri Mbele is on 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 Unisport Bafang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Position 9 on 29 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unisport Bafang has to find a result from somewhere.
1 for Lucky Clement, marked 7.90, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. PWD Bamenda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unisport Bafang lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unisport Bafang will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Njie will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unisport Bafang 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 Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eric Dawa commits to Unisport Bafang for another 3 years.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
Joel Ganago is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.