Marked for Marcel Mbarga
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jul 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonathan Okebugwu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panthere du Nde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match28 Jul 2036
55 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market28 Jul 2036
The offer from Canon Yaounde for Hillal Bensebaini 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Mohamed Moluh Mounta 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasarawa United have kept their man, and Panthere du Nde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout28 Jul 2036
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
A loan move for Saidou Alioum is in the works
Panthere du Nde have made the call to Djoliba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Asante Kotoko 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stade Renard de Melong waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panthere du Nde is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market21 Jul 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Abdelrahman Magdy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Djoliba have kept their man, and Panthere du Nde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market21 Jul 2036
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panthere du Nde has been clear about where Jonathan Okebugwu stands, which is more than many ever get.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
A loan move for Saidou Alioum is in the works
Panthere du Nde have made the call to Djoliba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Jul 2036
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and François Fegue Omgba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Jul 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Clinton Mani, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dynamo Douala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panthere du Nde is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout14 Jul 2036
Marcel Mbarga: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panthere du Nde have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jul 2036
“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 Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jul 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jul 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcel Mbarga and Panthere du Nde agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2036
A loan enquiry to Djoliba: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout14 Jul 2036
Nobody at Panthere du Nde 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.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Words at Panthere du Nde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. François Fegue Omgba 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jun 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panthere du Nde have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad16 Jun 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
Panthere du Nde asked and Asante Kotoko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad16 Jun 2036
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Panthere du Nde would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Squad16 Jun 2036
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Panthere du Nde would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
The manager makes Marcel Mbarga a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panthere du Nde. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
Jean Mabouka 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 Jean Mabouka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 May 2036
“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.
Squad26 May 2036
Mohamed Moluh Mounta 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.
The dugout26 May 2036
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 May 2036
Position 3 and 55 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market5 May 2036
“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 Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 May 2036
Abdelrahman Magdy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 May 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Georges Mbarga Atedzoe, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 May 2036
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.
The dugout5 May 2036
Abdelrahman Magdy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Panthere du Nde 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.
The dugout5 May 2036
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 Marcel Mbarga has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Jan 2035
17 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match6 Jan 2035
Panthere du Nde make home a hard place to visit
20 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Collins Siani, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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 dugout8 Jan 2035
“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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2035
Panthere du Nde asked and Asante Kotoko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces8 Jan 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Collins Siani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.